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s)j  '  j-?&*&    &4&^7£0f /*'/#»* 


WALKER'S 


APPEAL, 

IN  FOUR  ARTICLES; 


TOGETHER   WITH 


jX  WmMAWWWMc> 


COLOURED  CITIZENS  OF  THE  WORLD, 

BUT  IN  PARTICULAR,  AND  VERY  EXPRESSLY,  TO  THOSE  OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 

WRITTEN  IN  BOSTON,  STATE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 
SEPTEMBER  28,  1829. 


THIRD  AND  LAST  EDITION, 

WITH    ADDITIONAL   NOTES,    CORRECTIONS,  &C. 


tfoston: 

REVISED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  DAVID  WALKER. 

1830, 


Cd=  It  will  be  recollected,  that  I,  in  the  first  edition  of  my  **  Appeal,"* 
promised  to  demonstrate  in  the  course  of  which,  viz.  in  the  course  of  my  Ap- 
peal, to  the  satisfaction  of  the  most  incredulous  mind,  that  we  Coloured  Peo- 
ple of  these  United  States,  are,  the  most  wretched,  degraded  and  abject  set  of 
beings  that  over  lived  since  the  world  began,  down  to  the  present  day,  and, 
that,  the  white  Christians  of  Americar  who  hold  us  in  slavery,  (or,  more  prop- 
erly speaking,  pretenders  to  Christianity,)  treat  us  more  cruel  and  barbarous 
than  any  Heathen  nation  did  any  people  whom  it  had  subjected,  or  reduced 
to  the  same  condition,  that  the  Americans  (who  are,  notwithstanding,  looking 
for  the  Millennial  day)  have  us.  All  I  ask  is,  for  a  candid  and  careful  perusal 
of  this  the  third  and  last  edition  of  my  Appeal,  where  the  world  may  see  that 
we,  the  Blacks  or  Coloured  People,  are  treated  more  cruel  by  the  white  Chris- 
trans  of  America,  than  devils  themselves  ever  treated  a  set  of  men,  women  and 
children  on  this  earth.-dj) 

0Cf=-  It  is  expected  that  all  coloured  men,  women  and  children,!  of  every  nation, 
language  and  tongue  under  heaven,  will  try  to  procure  a  copy  of  this  Appeal 
and  read  it,  or  get  some  one  to  read  it  to  them,  for  it  is  designed  more  particu- 
larly for  them.  Let  them  remember,  that  though  our  cruel  oppressors  and  mur- 
derers, may  (if  possible)  treat  us  more  cruel,  as  Pharoah  did  the  children  of 
Israel,  yet  the  God  of  the  Etheopeansrhas  been  pleased  to  hear  our  moans  in 
consequence  of  oppression  -y  and  the  day  of  our  redemption  from  abject 
wretchedness  draweth  near,  when  we  shall  be  enabled,  in  the  most  extended 
sense  of  the  word,  to  stretch  forth  our  hands  to  the  Lord  our  God,  but  there 
must  be  a  willingness  on  our  part,  for  God  to  do  these  things  for  us,  for  we 
may  be  assured  that  he  will  not  take  us  by  the  hairs  of  our  head  against  our 
will  and  desire,  and  drag  us  from  our  very,  mean,  low  and  abject  condition.  =£$ 

*See  my  Preamble  in  first  edtition,  first  page.     See  also  2d  edition,  Article  1,  page  9. 

t  Who  are  not  too  deceitful,  abject,  and  servile  to  resist  the  cruelties  and  murders  inflicted 
upon  us  by  the  white  slave  holders,  our  enemies  by  nature. 


APPEAL,  &c 


i 


PREAMBLE. 

My  dearly  beloved  Brethren  and  Fellow  Citizens. 

Having  travelled  over  a  considerable  portion 
of  these  United  States,  and  having,  in  the  course  of 
my  travels,  taken  the  most  accurate  observations  of 
things  as  they  exist — the  result  of  my  observations 
has  warranted  the  full  and  unshaken  conviction, 
that  we,  (coloured  people  of  these  United  States,) 
are  the  most  degraded,  wretched,  and  abject  set  of 
beings  that  ever  lived  since  the  world  began ;  and 
I  pray  God  that  none  like  us  ever  may  live  again 
until  time  shall  be  no  more.  They  tell  us  of  the 
Israelites  in  Egypt,  the  Helots  in  Sparta,  and  of  the 
Roman  Slaves,  which  last  were  made  up  from  al- 
most every  nation  under  heaven,  whose  sufferings 
under  those  ancient  and  heathen  nations,  were,  in 
comparison  with  ours,  under  this  enlightened  and 
Christian  nation,  no  more  than  a  cypher — or,  in 
other  words,  those  heathen  nations  of  antiquity,  had 
but  little  more  among  them  than  the  name  and  form 
of  slavery ;  while  wretchedness  and  endless  mise- 
ries were  reserved,  apparently  in  a  phial,  to  be  pour- 
ed out  upon  our  fathers,  ourselves  and  our  children, 
by  Christian  Americans ! 

These  positions  I  shall  endeavour,  by  the  help  of 
the  Lord,  to  demonstrate  in  the  course  of  this  Jlppeal, 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  most  incredulous  mind — 
and  may  God  Almighty,  who  is  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  open  your  hearts  to  understand 
and  believe  the  truth. 

The  causes,  my  brethren,  which  produce  our 
wretchedness  and  miseries,  are  so  very  numerous 
and  aggravating,  that  I  believe  the  pen  only  of  a 
Josephus  or  a  Plutarch,  can  well  enumerate  and  ex- 
plain them.    Upon  subjects,  then,  of  such  incompre- 


4  PREAMBLE. 

hensible  magnitude,  so  impenetrable,  and  so  notori- 
ous, I  shall  be  obliged  to  omit  a  large  class  of,  and 
content  myself  with  giving  you  an  exposition  of  a 
few  of  those,  which  do  indeed  rage  to  such  an  alarm- 
ing pitch,  that  they  cannot  but  be  a  perpetual  source 
of  terror  and  dismay  to  ever)r  reflecting  mind. 

I  am  fully  aware,  in  making  this  appeal  to  my 
much  afflicted  and  suffering  brethren,  that  I  shall 
not  only  be  assailed  by  those  whose  greatest  earth- 
ly desires  are,  to  keep  us  in  abject  ignorance  and 
wretchedness,  and  who  are  of  the  firm  conviction 
that  Heaven  has  designed  us  and  our  children  to  be 
slaves  and  beasts  of  burden  to  them  and  their  chil- 
dren. I  say,  I  do  not  only  expect  to  be  held  up  to 
the  public  as  an  ignorant,  impudent  and  restless  dis- 
turber of  the  public  peace,  by  such  avaricious  crea- 
tures, as  well  as  a  mover  of  insubordination — and 
perhaps  put  in  prison  or  to  death,  Cor  giving  a  superfi- 
cial exposition  of  our  miseries,  and  exposing  tyrants. 
But  I  am  persuaded,  that  many  of  my  brethren,  par- 
ticularly those  who  are  ignorantly  in  league  with 
slave-holders  or  tyrants,  who  acquire  their  daily 
bread  by  the  blood  and  sweat  of  their  more  ignorant 
brethren — and  not  a  few  of  those  too,  who  are  too 
ignorant  to  see  an  inch  beyond  their  noses,  will  rise 
up  and  call  me  cursed — Yea,  the  jealous  ones  among 
us  will  perhaps  use  more  abject  subtlety,  by  affirm- 
ing that  this  work  is  not  worth  perusing ,  that  we 
are  well  situated,  and  there  is  no  use  in  trying  to 
better  our  condition,  for  we  cannot.  I  will  ask  one 
question  here. — Can  our  condition  be  any  worse  ? — 
Can  it  be  more  mean  and  abject?  If  there  are  any 
changes,  will  they  not  be  for  the  better,  though  they 
may  appear  for  the  worst  at  first ']  Can  they  get  us 
any  lower?  Where  can  they  get  us?  They  are 
afraid  to  treat  us  worse,  for  they  know  well,  the  day 
they  do  it  they  are  gone.  But  against  all  accusa- 
tions which  may  or  can  be  preferred  against  me,  I 
appeal  to  Heaven  for  my  motive  in  writing — who 
knows  that  my  object  is,  if  possible,  to  awaken  in 


PREAMBLE. 


the  breasts  of  my  afflicted,  degraded  and  slumber- 
ing brethren,  a  spirit  of  inquir}^  and  investigation 
respecting  our  miseries  and  wretchedness  in  this 
Republican  Land  of  Liberty  !  !  !  !  !  ! 

The  sources  from  which  our  miseries  are  derived, 
and  on  which  I  shall  comment,  I  shall  not  combine 
in  one,  but  shall  put  them  under  distinct  heads  and 
expose  them  in  their  turn  ;  in  doing  which,  keeping 
truth  on  my  side,  and  not  departing  from  the  strict- 
est rules  of  morality,  1  shall  endeavour  to  penetrate, 
search  out,  and  lay  them  open  for  your  inspection. 
If  you  cannot  or  will  not  profit  by  them,  I  shall 
have  done  my  duty  to  you,  my  country  and  my  God. 

And  as  the  inhuman  system  of  slavery,  is  the 
source  from  which  most  of  our  miseries  proceed,  I 
shall  begin  with  that  curse  to  nations^  which  has 
spread  terror  and  devastation  through  so  many  na- 
tions of  antiquity,  and  which  is  raging  to  such  a  pitch 
at  the  present  day  in  Spain  and  in  Portugal.  It  had 
one  tug  in  England,  in  France,  and  in  the  United 
States  of  America  ;  yet  the  inhabitants  thereof,  do 
not  learn  wisdom,  and  erase  it  entirely  from  their 
dwellings  and  from  all  with  whom  they  have  to  do. 
The  fact  is,  the  labour  of  slaves  comes  so  cheap  to 
the  avaricious  usurpers,  and  is  (as  they  think)  of  such 
great  utility  to  the  country  where  it  exists,  that  those 
who  are  actuated  by  sordid  avarice  only,  overlook 
the  evils,  which  will  as  sure  as  the  Lord  lives,  follow 
after  the  good.  In  fact,  they  are  so  happy  to  keep 
in  ignorance  and  degradation,  and  to  receive  the 
homage  and  the  labour  of  the  slaves,  they  forget  that 
God  rules  in  the  armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth,  having  his  ears  continually 
open  to  the  cries,  tears  and  groans  of  his  oppressed 
people  ;  and  being  a  just  and  holy  Being  will  at  one 
day  appear  fully  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed,  and  ar- 
rest the  progress  of  the  avaricious  oppressors ;  for 
although  the  destruction  of  the  oppressors  God  may 
not  effect  by  the  oppressed,  yet  the  Lord  our  God 
will  bring  other  destructions  upon  them — for  not 


6  PREAMBLE. 

unfrequently  will  he  cause  them  to  rise  up  one 
against  another,  to  be  split  and  divided,  and  to  op- 
press each  other,  and  sometimes  to  open  hostilities 
with  sword  in  hand.-  Some  may  ask,  what  is  the 
matter  with  this  united  and  happy  people  1 — Some 
say  it  is  the  cause  of  political  usurpers,  tyrants,  op- 
pressors, &c.  But  has  not  the  Lord  an  oppressed 
and  suffering  people  among  them  1  Does  the  Lord 
condescend  to  hear  their  cries  and  see  their  tears 
in  consequence  of  oppression  ?  Will  he  let  the  op- 
pressors rest  comfortably  and  happy  always  ?  Will 
he  not  cause  the  very  children  of  the  oppressors  to 
rise  up  against  them,  and  oftimes  put  them  to  death  1 
"  God  works  in  many  ways  his  wonders  to  per- 
form." 

I  will  not  here  speak  of  the  destructions  which 
the  Lord  brought  upon  Egypt,  in  consequence  of 
the  oppression  and  consequent  groans  of  the  op- 
pressed— of  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  Egyp- 
tians whom  God  hurled  into  the  Red  Sea  for  afflict- 
ing his  people  in  their  land — of  the  Lord's  suffering 
people  in  Sparta  or  Lacedemon,  the  land  of  the  truly 
famous  Lycurgus — nor  have  I  time  to  comment  upon 
the  cause  which  produced  the  fierceness  with  which 
.Sylla  usurped  the  title,  and  absolutely  acted  as  dic- 
tator of  the  Roman  people — the  conspiracy  of  Cat- 
saline — the  conspiracy  against,  and  murder  of  Caesar 
rin  the  Senate  house — the  spirit  with  which  Marc 
.Antony  made  himself  master  of  the  commonwealth 
— his  associating  Octavius  and  Lipidus  with  himself 
in  power — their  dividing  the  provinces  of  Rome 
among  themselves — their  attack  and  defeat,  on  the 
plains  of  Phillippi,  of  the  last  defenders  of  their  lib- 
erty, (Brutus  and  Cassius) — the  tyranny  of  Tibe- 
rius, and  from  him  to  the  final  overthrow  of  Con- 
stantinople by  the  Turkish  Sultan,  Mahomed  II. 
A.  D.  1453.  I  say,  I  shall  not  take  up  time  to 
speak  of  the  causes  which  produced  so  much  wretch- 
edness and  massacre  among  those  heathen  nations, 
for  I  am  aware  that  you  know  too  well,  that  God  is 


PREAMBLE.  7 

just,  as  well  as  merciful ! — I  shall  call  your  attention  a 
few  moments  to  that  Christian  nation,  the  Spaniards 
— while  I  shall  leave  almost  unnoticed,  that  avari- 
cious and  cruel  people,  the  Portuguese,  among 
whom  all  true  hearted  Christians  and  lovers  of  Jesus 
Christ,  must  evidently  see  the  judgments  of  God 
displayed.  To  show  the  judgments  of  God  upon 
the  Spaniards,  I  shall  occupy  but  a  little  time,  leav- 
ing a  plenty  of  room  for  the  candid  and  unpre- 
judiced to  reflect. 

All  persons  who  are  acquainted  with  history,  and 
particularly  the  Bible,  who  are  not  blinded  by  the 
God  of  this  world,  and  are  not  actuated  solely  by 
avarice — who  are  able  to  lay  aside  prejudice  long 
enough  to  view  candidly  and  impartially,  things  as 
they  were,  are,  and  probably  will  be — who  are  wil- 
ling to  admit  that  God  made  man  to  serve  Him  alonev 
and  that  man  should  have  no  other  Lord  or  Lords, 
but  Himself — that  God  Almighty  is  the  sole  proprie- 
tor or  master  of  the  whole  human  family,  and  will 
not  on  any  consideration  admit  of  a  colleague,  be- 
ing unwilling  to  divide  his  glory  with  another — 
and  who  can  dispense  with  prejudice  long  enough 
to  admit  that  we  are  men,  notwithstanding  our  im- 
prominent  noses  andwoolly  heads,  and  believe  that  we 
feel  for  our  fathers,  mothers,  wives  and  children,, 
as  well  as  the  whites  do  for  theirs.— I  say,  all  who  are 
permitted  to  see  and  believe  these  things,  can  easily 
recognize  the  judgments  of  God  among  the  Span- 
iards. Though  others  may  lay  the  cause  of  the 
fierceness  with  which  they  cut  each  other's  throats,, 
to  some  other  circumstance,  yet  they  who  believe 
that  God  is  a  God  of  justice,  will  believe  that 
Slavery  is  the  principal  cause. 

While  the  Spaniards  are  running  about  upon  the 
field  of  battle  cutting  each  other's  throats,  has  not 
the  Lord  an  afflicted  and  suffering  people  in  the 
midst  of  them,  whose  cries  and  groans  in  consequence 
of  oppression  are  continually  pouring  into  the  ears 
of  the  God  of  justice?  Would  they  not  cease  to  cut 


PREAMBLE. 


each  other's  throats,  if  they  could?  But  how  can 
they  ?  The  very  support  which  they  draw  from 
government  to  aid  them  in  perpetrating  such  enor- 
mities, does  it  not  arise  in  a  great  degree  from  the 
wretched  victims  of  oppression  among  them?  And 
yet  they  are  calling  for  Peace! — Peace!!  Will 
any  peace  be  given  unto  them  ?  Their  destruction 
may  indeed  be  procrastinated  awhile,  but  can  it 
continue  long,  while  they  are  oppressing  the  Lord's 
people?  Has  He  not  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  His 
hand?  Will  he  suffer  one  part  of  his  creatures  to 
go  on  oppressing  another  like  brutes  always,  with 
impunity  ?  And  yet,  those  avaricious  wretches  are 
calling  for  Peace  !  !  !  !  I  declare,  it  does  appear  to 
me,  as  though  some  nations  think  God  is  asleep,  or 
that  he  made  the  Africans  for  nothing  else  but  to 
dig  their  mines  and  work  their  farms,  or  they  cannot 
believe  history,  sacred  or  profane.  I  ask  every  man 
who  has  a  heart,  and  is  blessed  with  the  privilege  of 
believing — Is  not  God  a  God  of  justice  to  all  his 
creatures  ?  Do  you  say  he  is?  Then  if  he  gives  peace 
and  tranquillity  to  tyrants,  and  permits  them  to  keep 
our  fathers,  our  mothers,  ourselves  and  our  children 
in  eternal  ignorance  and  wretchedness,  to  support 
them  and  their  families,  would  he  be  to  us  a  God  of 
justice  ?  I  ask,  O  ye  Christians  !  !  !  who  hold  us 
and  our  children  in  the  most  abject  ignorance  and 
degradation,  that  ever  a  people  were  afflicted  with 
since  the  world  began — I  say,  if  God  gives  you 
peace  and  tranquillity,  and  suffers  you  thus  to  go  on 
afflicting  us,  and  our  children,  who  have  never  giv- 
en you  the  least  provocation — would  he  be  to  us 
a  God  of  justice  ?  If  you  will  allow  that  we  are 
men,  who  feel  for  each  other,  does  not  the  blood  of 
our  fathers  and  of  us  their  children,  cry  aloud  to  the 
Lord  of  Sabaoth  against  you,  for  the  cruelties  and 
murders  with  which  you  have,  and  do  continue  to 
afflict  us.  But  it  is  time  for  me  to  close  my  re- 
marks on  the  suburbs,  just  to  enter  more  fully  into 
the  interior  of  this  system  of  cruelty  and  oppression. 


AX    APPEAL,    ETC. 


ARTICLE  I. 

OUR  WRETCHEDNESS    IN  CONSEQUENCE    OF  SLAVERY. 

My  beloved  brethren : — The  Indians  of  North 
and  of  South  America— the  Greeks — the  Irish,  sub- 
jected under  the  king  of  Great  Britain — the  Jews, 
that  ancient  people  of  the  Lord — the  inhabitants  of 
the  islands  of  the  sea — in  fine,  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth,  (except  however,  the  sons  of  Africa)  are 
called  men,  and  of  course  are,  and  ought  to  be  free. 
But  we,  (coloured  people)  and  our  children  are 
brutes  ! !  and  of  course  are,  and  ought  to  be  Slaves 
to  the  American  people  and  their  children  forever !  ! 
to  dig  their  mines  and  work  their  farms ;  and  thus 
go  on  enriching  them,  from  one  generation  to  an- 
other with  our  blood  and  our  tears  !  !  !  ! 

I  promised  in  a  preceding  page  to  demonstrate  to 
the  satisfaction  of  the  most  incredulous,  that  we, 
(coloured  people  of  these  United  States  of  America) 
are  the  most  wretched,  degraded  and  abject  set  of 
beings  that  ever  lived  since  the  world  began,  and 
that  the  white  Americans  having  reduced  us  to  the 
wretched  state  of  slavery,  treat  us  in  that  condition 
more  cruel  (they  being  an  enlighted  and  Christian 
people,)  than  any  heathen  nation  did  any  people 
whom  it  had  reduced  to  our  condition.  These  affir- 
mations are  so  well  confirmed  in  the  minds  of  all 
unprejudiced  men,  who  iiave  taken  the  trouble  to 
read  histories,  that  they  need  no  elucidation  from 
me.  But  to  put  them  beyond  all  doubt,  I  refer 
you  in  the  first  place  to  the  children  of  Jacob,  or 
of  Israel  in  Egypt,  under  Pharaoh  and  liis  people. 
Some  of  my  brethren  do  not  know  who  Pharaoh 
and  the  Egyptians  were — I  know  it  to  be  a  fact, 
that  some  of  them  take  the  Egyptians  to  have  been 
a  gang  of  devils,  not  knowing  any  better,  and  that 
they  (Egy ptians)  having  got  possession  of  the5Lord's 
people,  treated  them  marly  as  cruel  as  Christian 
3 


10  AN   APPEAL,    ETC. 

Americans  do  us,  at  the  present  day.  For  the  in- 
formation of  such,  I  would  only  mention  that  the 
Egyptians,  were  Africans  or  coloured  people,  such 
as  we  are — some  of  them  yellow  and  other*  dark — 
a  mixture  of  Ethiopians  and  the  natives  of  Egypt — 
about  the  same  as  you  see  the  coloured  people  of 
the  United  States  at  the  present  day. — I  say,  I  call 
your  attention  then,  to  the  children  of  Jacob,  while 
I  point  out  particularly  to  you  his  son  Joseph, 
among  the  rest,  in  Egypt. 

"  And  Pharaoh,  said  unto  Joseph,  thou  shalt  be 
"over  my  house,  and  according  unto  thy  word 
"  shall  all  my  people  be  ruled  :  only  in  the  throne 
"  will  I  be  greater  than  thou."* 

"  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  see,  I  have  set 
_•*  thee  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt."f 

"  And  Pharaoh  said  unto  Joseph,  I  am  Pharaoh, 
"  and  without  thee  shall  no  man  lift  up  his  hand  or 
"  foot  in  all  the  land  of  Egypt."  J 

Now  I  appeal  to  heaven  and  to  earth,  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  American  people  themselves,  who 
cease  not  to  declare  that  our  condition  is  not  hard, 
and  that  we  are  comparatively  satisfied  to  rest  in 
wretchedness  and  misery,  under  them  and  their 
children.  Not,  indeed,  to  show  me  a  coloured  Pre- 
sident, a  Governor,  a  Legislator,  a  Senator,  a  May- 
or, or  an  Attorney  at  the  Bar. — But  to  show  me  a 
man  of  colour,  who  holds  the  low  office  of  a  Con- 
stable, or  one  who  sits  in  a  Juror  Box,  even  on  a 
case  of  one  of  his  wretched  brethren,  throughout 
this  great  Republic  ! ! — But  let  us  pass  Joseph  the 
son  of  Israel  a  little  farther  in  review,  as  he  existed 
with  that  heathen  nation. 

"  And  Pharaoh  called  Joseph's  name  Zaphnath- 
"  paaneah ;  and  he  gave  him  to  wife  Asenath  the 
"  daughter  of  Potipherah  priest  of  On.  And  Joseph 
"  went  out  over  all  the  land  of  Egypt."§ 

Compare  the  above,  with  the  American  institu- 
tions.    Do  they  not  institute  laws  to  prohibit  us  from 

*   See  Genesis,  chap.   xli.      f  xli.  4.4.       §  xli.  45, 


AN    APPEAL,   ETC.  11 

marrying  among  the  whites  ?  I  would  wish,  can- 
didly, however,  before  the  Lord,  to  be  understood, 
that  I  would  not  give  a  pinch  of  snuff  to  be  mar- 
ried to  any  white  person  I  ever  saw  in  all  the  days 
of  my  life.  And  I  do  say  it,  that  the  black  man,  or 
man  of  colour,  who  will  leave  his  own  colour  (pro- 
vided he  can  get  one,  who  is  good  for  any  thing)  and 
marry  a  white  woman,  to  be  a  double  slave  to  her, 
just  because  she  is  white,  ought  to  be  treated  by  her 
as  he  surely  will  be,  viz  :  as  a  jviger  !  ! ! !  It  is  not, 
indeed,  what  I  care  about  inter-marriages  with  the 
whites,  which  induced  me  to  pass  this  subject  in  re- 
view ;  for  the  Lord  knows,  that  there  is  a  day  com- 
ing when  they  will  be  glad  enough  to  get  into  the 
company  of  the  blacks,  notwithstanding,  we  are,  in 
this  generation,  levelled  by  them,  almost  on  a  level 
with  the  brute  creation  :  and  some  of  us  they  treat 
even  worse  than  they  do  the  brutes  that  perish.  I 
only  made  this  extract  to  show  how  much  lower  we 
are  held,  and  how  much  more  cruel  we  are  treated 
by  the  Americans,  than  were  the  children  of  Jacob, 
by  the  Egyptians. — We  will  notice  the  sufferings  of 
Israel  some  further,  under  heathen  Pharaoh,  compar- 
ed with  ours  under  the  enlightened  Christians  of 
America. 

"  And  Pharaoh  spake  unto  Joseph,  saying,  thy 
"  father  and  thy  brethren  are  come  unto  thee  :" 

"  The  land  of  Egypt  is  before  thee  :  in  the  best 
"  of  the  land  make  thy  father  and  brethren  to  dwell ; 
"  in  the  land  of  Goshen  let  them  dwell :  and  if  thou. 
"  knowest  any  men  of  activity  among  them,  then 
"  make  them  rulers  over  my  cattle."* 

I  ask  those  people  who  treat  us  so  well,  Oh !  I 
ask  them,  where  is  the  most  barren  spot  of  land 
which  they  have  given  unto  us?  Israel  had  the 
most  fertile  land  in  all  Egypt.  Need  I  mention  the 
very  notorious  fact,  that  I  have  known  a  poor  man 
of  colour,  who  laboured  night  and  day,  to  acquire  a 
little  money,  and  having  acquired  it,  he  vested  it  in 
a  small  piece  of  land,  and  got  him  a  house  erected 

*  Genesis,  chap,  xlvii.  5.  6.  -        -  - 


12  AN    APPEAL,    ETC 

thereon,  and  having  paid  for  the  whole,  he  moved 
his  family  into  it,  where'  he  was  suffered  to  remain 
but  nine  months,  when  he  was  cheated  out  of  his 
property  by  a  white  man,  and  driven  out  of  door ! 
And  is  not  this  the  case  generally  1  Can  a  man  of 
colour  buy  a  piece  of  land  and  keep  it  peaceably? 
Will  not  same  white  man  try  to  get  it  from  him,  even 
if  it  is  in  a  mud  hole?  I  need  not  comment  any 
farther  on  a  subject,  which  all,  both  black  and 
white,  will  readily  admit.  But  I  must,  really,  ob- 
serve that  in  this  very  city,  when  a  man  of  colour 
dies,  if  he  owned  any  real  estate  it  most  generally 
fails  into  the  hands  of  some  white  person.  The 
wife  and  children  of  the  deceased  may  weep  and 
lament  if  they  please,  but  the  estate  will  be  kept 
snug  enough  by  its  white  possessor. 

But  to  prove  farther  that  the  condition  of  the  Is- 
raelites was  better  under  the  Egyptians  than  ours  is 
under  the  whites.  I  call  upon  the  professing  Chris- 
tians, I  call  upon  the  philanthropist,  I  call  upon  the 
very  tyrant  himself,  to  show  me  a  page  of  history, 
either  sacred  or  profane,  on  which  a  verse  can  be 
found,  which  maintains,  that  the  Egyptians  heaped 
the  insupportable  insult  upon  the  children  of  Israel, 
by  telling  them  that  they  were  not  of  the  human 
family.  Can  the  whites  deny  this  charge  1  Have 
they  not,  after  having  reduced  us  to  the  deplorable 
condition  of  slaves  under  their  feet,  held  us  up  as 
descending  originally  from  the  tribes  of  Monkeys  or 
Orang-  Ouiangs  ?  O  S  my  God  !  I  appeal  to  every 
man  of  feeling — is  not  this  insupportable?  Is  it  not 
heaping  the  most  gross  iusult  upon  our  miseries,  be- 
cause they  have  got  us  under  their  feet  and  we  can- 
not help  ourselves  ?  Oh  !  pity  us  we  pray  thee,  Lord 
Jesus,  Master. — Has  Mr.  Jefferson  declared  to  the 
world,  that  we  are  inferior  to  the  whites,  both  in  the 
endowments  of  our  bodies  and  of  minds  1  It  is  in- 
deed surprising,  that  a  man  of  such  great  learning, 
combined  with  such  excellent  natural  parts,  should 
speak  so  of  a  set  of  men  in  chains.     I  do  not  know 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  13 

what  to  compare  it  to,  unless,  like  putting  one  wild 
deer  in  an  iron  cage,  where  it  will  be  secured,  and 
hold  another  by  the  side  of  the  same,  then  let  it  go, 
and  expect  the  one  in  the  cage  to  run  as  fast  as  the 
one  at  liberty.  So  far,  my  brethren,  were  the 
Egyptians  from  heaping  these  insults  upon  their 
slaves,  that  Pharoah's  daughter  took  Moses,  a  son  of 
Israel  for  her  own,  as  will  appear  by  the  following. 

"  And  Pharoah's  daughter  said  unto  her,  [Moses' 
"  mother]  take  this  child  away,  and  nurse  it  for  me, 
"  and  I  will  pay  thee  thy  wages.  And  the  woman 
"  took  the  child  [Moses]  and  nursed  it. 

"  And  the  child  grew,  and  she  brought  him  unto 
"  Pharoah's  daughter  and  he  became  her  son.  And 
"  she  called  his  name  Moses  :  and  she  said  because 
"  I  drew  him  out  of  the  water."* 

In  all  probability,  Moses  would  have  become 
Prince  Regent  to  the  throne,  and  no  doubt,  in  pro- 
cess of  time  but  he  would  have  been  seated  on  the 
throne  of  Egypt.  But  he  had  rather  suffer  shame, 
with  the  people  of  God,  than  to  enjoy  pleasures  with 
that  wicked  people  for  a  season.  Q  !  that  the  col- 
oured people  were  long  since  of  Moses'  excellent 
disposition,  instead  of  courting  favour  with,  and  tel- 
ling news  and  lies  to  our  natural  enemies,  against 
each  other — aiding  them  to  keep  their  hellish  chains 
of  slavery  upon  us.  Would  we  not  long  before  this 
time,  have  been  respectable  men,  instead  of  such 
wretched  victims  of  oppression  as  we  are  ?  Would 
they  be  able  to  drag  our  mothers,  our  fathers,  our 
wives,  our  children  and  ourselves,  around  the  world 
in  chains  and  hand-cuffs  as  they  do,  to  dig  up  gold 
and  silver  for  them  and  theirs  1  This  question,  my 
brethren,  I  leave  for  you  to  digest ;  and  may  God 
Almighty  force  it  home  to  your  hearts.  Remember 
that  unless  you  are  united,  keeping  your  tongues 
within  your  teeth,  you  will  be  afraid  to  trust  your 
secrets  to  each  other,  and  thus  perpetuate  our  mis- 
eries under  the  Christians  I  I  !  !  !    $&>  Addition. — ■ 

*  See  Exodus,  chap.  ii.   9,  10. 


14  AN  APPEAL,  ETC. 

Remember,  also  to  lay  humble  at  the  feet  of  our 
Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ,  with  prayers  and 
fastings.  Let  our  enemies  go  on  with  their  butch- 
eries, and  at  once  fill  up  their  cup.  Never  make  an 
attempt  to  gain  our  freedom  or  natural  right,  from 
under  our  cruel  oppressors  and  murderers,  until  you 
see  your  way  clear* — when  that  hour  arrives  and  you 
move,  be  not  afraid  or  dismayed ;  for  be  you  assur- 
ed that  Jesus  Christ  the  King  of  heaven  and  of  earth 
who  is  the  God  of  justice  and  of  armies,  will  surely 
go  before  you.  And  those  enemies  who  have  for 
hundreds  of  years  stolen  our  rights,  and  kept  us  ig- 
norant of  Him  and  His  divine  worship,  he  will  re- 
move. Millions  of  whom,  are  this  day,  so  ignorant 
and  avaricious,  that  they  cannot  conceive  how  God 
can  have  an  attribute  of  justice,  and  show  mercy  to 
us  because  it  pleased  Him  to  make  us  black — which 
colour,  Mr.  Jefferson  calls  unfortunate  !!!!!!  As 
though  we  are  not  as  thankful  to  our  God,  for  having 
made  us  as  it  pleased  himself,  as  they,  (the  whites,) 
are  for  having  made  them  white.  They  think  be- 
cause they  hold  us  in  their  infernal  chains  of  slavery, 
that  we  wish  to  be  white,  or  of  their  color — but  they 
are  dreadfully  deceived — we  wish  to  be  just  as  it 
pleased  our  Creator  to  have  made  us,  and  no  avari- 
cious and  unmerciful  wretches,  have  any  business 
to  make  slaves  of,  or  hold  us  in  slavery.  How  would 
they  like  for  us  to  make  slaves  of,  and  hold  them 
in  cruel  slavery,  and  murder  them  as  they  do  us? — 

*  It  is  not  to  be  understood  here,  that  I  mean  for  us  to  wait  until 
God  shall  take  us  by  the  hair  of  our  heads  and  drag  us  out  of  abject 
wretchedness  and  slavery,  nor  do  I  mean  to  convey  the  idea  for  us 
to  wait  until  our  enemies  shall  make  preparations,  and  call  us  to 
seize  those  preparations,  take  it  away  from  them,  and  put  every 
thing  before  us  to  death,  in  order  to  gain  our  freedom  which  God 
has  given  us.  For  you  must  remember  that  we  are  men  as  well  as 
they.  God  has  been  pleased  to  give  us  two  eyes,  two  hands,  two 
feet,  and  some  sense  in  our  heads  as  well  as  they.  They  have  no 
more  right  to  hold  us  in  slavery  than  we  have  to  hold  them,  we 
have  just  as  much  right,  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  hold  them  and  their 
children  in  slavery  and  wretchedness,  as  they  have  to  hold  us,  and 
no  more. 


AN    APPEAL,   ETC.  \6 

But  is  Mr.  Jefferson's  assertions  true  1  viz.  "  that  it 
is  unfortunate  for  us  that  our  Creator  has  been  pleas- 
ed to  make  us  black"  We  will  not  take  his  say  so, 
for  the  fact.  The  world  will  have  an  opportunity 
to  see  whether  it  is  unfortunate  for  us,  that  our 
Creator  has  made  us  darker  than  the  whites. 

Fear  not  the  number  and  education  of  our  enemies, 
against  whom  we  shall  have  to  contend  for  our  law- 
ful right ;  guaranteed  to  us  by  our  Maker ;  for 
why  should  we  be  afraid,  when  God  is,  and  will 
continue,  (if  we  continue  humble)  to  be  on  our  side? 

The  man  who  would  not  fight  under  our  Lord  and 
Master  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  glorious  and  heavenly 
cause  of  freedom  and  of  God — to  be  delivered  from 
the  most  wretched,  abject  and  servile  slavery,  that 
ever  a  people  was  afflicted  with  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world,  to  the  present  day — ought  to 
be  kept  with  all  of  his  children  or  family,  in  slave- 
ry, or  in  chains,  to  be  butchered  by  his  cruel  ene- 
mies. «#g 

I  saw  a  paragraph,  a  few  years  since,  in  a  South 
Carolina  paper,  which,  speaking  of  the  barbarity  of 
the  Turks,  it  said :  "  The  Turks  are  the  most  bar- 
"  barous  people  in  the  world — they  treat  the  Greeks 
"  more  like  brutes  than  human  beings."  And  in 
the  same  paper  was  an  advertisement,  which  said  i 
"  Eight  well  built  Virginia  and  Maryland  Negra 
"fellows  and  four  wenches  will  positively  be  sold 
"  this  day,  to  the  highest  bidder  /"  And  what  aston- 
ished me  still  more  was,  to  see  in  this  same  humane 
paper !  !  the  cuts  of  three  men,  with  clubs  and 
budgets  on  their  backs,  and  an  advertisement  offer- 
ing a  considerable  sum  of  money  for  their  appre- 
hension and  delivery.  I  declare,  it  is  really  so 
amusing  to  hear  the  Southerners  and  Westerners  of 
this  country  talk  about  barbarity,  that  it  is  positive- 
ly, enough  to  make  a  man  smile. 

The  sufferings  of  the  Helots  among  the  Spartans, 
were  somewhat  severe,  it  is  true,  but  to  say  that 
theirs,  were  as  severe  as  ours  among  the  Americans, 


16  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

I  do  most  strenuously  deny — for  instance,  can  any 
man  show  me  an  article  on  a  page  of  ancient  history 
which  specifies,  that,  the  Spartans  chained,  and 
hand-cuffed  the  Helots,  and  dragged  them  from  their 
wives  and  children,,  children  from  their  parents, 
mothers  from  their  suckling  babes,  wives  from  their 
husbands,  driving  them  from  one  end  of  the  country 
to  the  other?  Notice  the  Spartans  were  heathens, 
who  lived  long  before  our  Divine  Master  made  his 
appearance  in  the  flesh.  Can  Christian  Americans 
deny  these  barbarous  cruelties?  Have  you  not, 
Americans,  having  subjected  us  under  you,  added 
to  these  miseries,  by  insulting  us  in  telling  us  to 
our  face,  because  we  are  helpless,  that  we  are  not  of 
the  human  family  3  I  ask  you,  O  !  Americans,  I 
ask  you,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  can  you  deny 
these  charges?  Some  perhaps  may  deny,  by  say- 
ing, that  they  never  thought  or  said  that  we  were 
not  men.  But  do  not  actions  speak  louder  than 
words? — have  they  not  made  provisions  for  the 
Greeks,  and  Irish  ?  Nations  who  have  never  done 
the  least  thing  for  them,  while  ive,  who  have  en- 
riched their  country  with  our  blood  and  tears — have 
dug  up  gold  and  silver  for  them  and  their  children, 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  are  in  more  mis- 
eries than  any  other  people  under  heaven,  are  not 
seen,  but  by  comparatively,  a  handful  of  the  Amer- 
ican people  ?  There  are  indeed,  more  ways  to  kill  a 
dog,  besides  choking  it  to  death  with  butter.  Fur- 
ther-— The  Spartans  or  Lacedemonians,  had  some 
frivolous  pretext,  for  enslaving  the  Helots,  for  they 
(Helots)  while  being  free  inhabitants  of  Sparta, 
stirred  up  an  intestine  commotion,  and  were,  by  the 
Spartans  subdued,  and  made  prisoners  of  war.  Con- 
sequently they  and  their  children  were  condemned 
to  perpetual  slavery.* 

I  have  been  for  years  troubling  the  pages  of  his- 
torians, to  find  out  what  our  fathers  have  done  to 


*  See.  Dr.  Goldsmith's   History   of  Greece— page  9.      See   also, 
Plutarch's  Lives.     The  Helots  subdued  by  Agjs,  king  of  Sparta. 


AX    APPEAL,    ETC.  17 

the  white  Christians  of  America,  to  merit  such  con- 
dign punishment  as  they  have  inflicted  on  them,  and 
do  continue  to  inflict  on  us  their  children.  But  I 
must  aver,  that  my  researches  have  hitherto  been  to 
no  effect.  I  have  therefore,  come  to  the  immovea- 
ble conclusion,  that  the}r  (Americans)  have,  and  do 
continue  to  punish  us  for  nothing  else,  but  for  en- 
riching them  and  their  country.  For  I  Cannot  con- 
ceive of  any  thing  else.  Nor  will  I  ever  believe 
otherwise,  until  the  Lord  shall  convince  me. 

The  world  knows,  that  slavery  as  it  existed  among 
the  Romans,  (which  was  the  primary  cause  of  their 
destruction)  was,  comparatively  speaking,  no  more 
than  a  cypher,  when  compared  with  ours  under  the 
Americans.  Indeed  I  should  not  have  noticed  the 
Roman  slaves,  had  not  the  very  learned  and  pene- 
trating Mr.  Jefferson  said,  "  when  a  master  was  mur- 
dered, all  his  slaves  in  the  same  house,  or  within 
hearing,  were  condemned  to  death."* — Here  let  me 
ask  Mr.  Jefferson,  (but  he  is  gone  to  answer  at  the 
bar  of  God,  for  the  deeds  done  in  his  body  while 
living,)  I  therefore  ask  the  whole  American  people, 
had  I  not  rather  die,  or  be  put  to  death,  than  to  be 
a  slave  to  any  tyrant,  who  takes  not  only  my  own, 
but  my  wife  and  children's  lives  by  the  inches  1 
Yea,  would  I  meet  death  Avith  avidity  far  !  far  !  ! 
in  preference  to  such  servile  submission  to  the  mur- 
derous hands  of  tyrants.  Mr.  Jefferson's  very  se- 
vere remarks  on  Us  have  been  so  extensively  argued 
upon  by  men  whose  attainments  in  literature,  I 
shall  never  be  able  to  reach,  that  I  would  not  have 
meddled  with  it,  were  it  not  to  solicit  each  of  my 
brethren,  who  has  the  spirit  of  a  man,  to  buy  a  copy 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  and  put  it 
in  the  hand  of  his  son.  For  let  no  one  of  us  sup- 
pose that  the  refutations  which  have  been  written 
by  our  white  friends  are  enough — they  are  whites — 
we  are  blacks.      We,  and  the  world  wish  to  see  the 


*  See  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  page  219. 

3 


18  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

charges  of  Mr.  Jefferson  refuted  by  the  blacks 
themselves,  according  to  their  chance ;  for  we  must 
remember  that  what  the  whites  have  written  re- 
specting this  subject,  is  other  men's  labours,  and  did 
not  emanate  from  the  blacks.  I  know  well,  that 
there  are  some  talents  and  learning  among  the  col- 
oured people  of  this  country,  which  we  have  not  a 
chance  to  develope,  in  consequence  of  oppression  ; 
but  our  oppression  ought  not  to  hinder  us  from  ac- 
quiring all  we  can.  For  we  will  have  a  chance  to 
develope  them  by  and  by.  God  will  not  suffer  us, 
always  to  be  oppressed.  Our  sufferings  will  come 
to  an  end,  in  spite  of  all  the  Americans  this  side  of 
eternity.  Then  we  will  want  all  the  learning  and 
talents  among  ourselves,  and  perhaps  more,  to 
govern  ourselves. — "  Every  dog  must  have  its  day," 
the  American's  is  coming  to  an  end. 

But  let  us  review  Mr.  Jefferson's  remarks  re- 
specting us  some  further.  Comparing  our  misera- 
ble fathers,  with  the  learned  philosophers  of  Greece, 
he  says :  "  Yet  notwithstanding  these  and  other  dis- 
"  cpu raging  circumstances  among  the  Romans,  their 
"  slaves  were  often  their  rarest  artists.  They  ex- 
"  celled  too,  in  science,  insomuch  as  to  be  usually 
"employed  as  tutors  to  their  master's  children; 
"Epictetus,  Terence  and  Phaedrus,  were  slaves, — 
"  but  they  were  of  the  race  of  whites.  It  is  not 
"  their  condition  then,  but  nature,  which  has  pro- 
"  duced  the  distinction."*  See  this,  my  brethren1.  I 
Do  you  believe  that  this  assertion  is  swallowed  by 
millions  of  the  whites  ?  Do  you  know  that  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  one  of  as  great  characters  as  ever  lived 
among  the  whites?  See  his  writings  for  the  world, 
and  public  labours  for  the  United  States  of  America. 
Do  you  believe  that  the  assertions  of  such  a  man, 
will  pass  away  into  oblivion  unobserved  by  this 
people  and  the  world  ?  If  you  do  you  are  much  mis- 
taken— See  how  the  American  people  treat  us— 
have  we  souls  in  our  bodies  1  Are  we  men  who  have 

*See  his  Notes  on  Virginia,  page  211. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  19 

any  spirits  at  all?  I  know  that  there  are  many 
swell-bellied  fellows  among  us,  whose  greatest  object 
is  to  fill  their  stomachs.  Such  I  do  not  mean — I 
am  after  those  who  know  and  feel,  that  we  are  men, 
as  well  as  other  people  ;  to  them,  I  say,  that  unless 
we  try  to  refute  Mr.  Jefferson's  arguments  respect- 
ing us,  we  will  only  establish  them. 

But  the  slaves  among  the  Romans.  Every  body 
who  has  read  history,  knows,  that  as  soon  as  a  slave 
among  the  Romans  obtained  his  freedom,  he  could 
rise  to  the  greatest  eminence  in  the  State,  and  there 
was  no  law  instituted  to  hinder  a  slave  from  buying 
his  freedom.  Have  not  the  Americans  instituted 
laws  to  hinder  us  from  obtaining  our  freedom  ?  Do 
any  deny  this  charge  ?  Read  the  laws  of  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  &c.  Further :  have  not  the  Amer- 
icans instituted  laws  to  prohibit  a  man  of  colour 
from  obtaining  and  holding  any  office  whatever,  un- 
der the  government  of  the  United  States  of  Ameri- 
ca? Now,  Mr.  Jefferson  tells  us,  that  our  condi- 
tion is  not  so  hard,  as  the  slaves  were  under  the 
Romans !!!!!! 

It  is  time  for  me  to  bring  this  article  to  a  close. 
But  before  I  close  it,  I  must  observe  to  my  breth- 
ren that  at  the  close  of  the  first  Revolution  in  this 
country,  with  Great  Britain,  there  were  but  thirteen 
States  in  the  Union,  now  there  are  twenty-four, 
most  of  which  are  slave-holding  States,  and  the 
whites  are  dragging  us  around  in  chains  and  in  hand- 
cuffs, to  their  new  States  and  Territories  to  work 
their  mines  and  farms,  to  enrich  them  and  their 
children — and  millions  of  them  believing  firmly  that 
we  being  a  little  darker  than  they,  w^re  made  by 
our  Creator  to  be  an  inheritance  to  them  and  their 
children  for  ever — the  same  as  a  parcel  of  brutes. 

Are  we  men!  ! — I  ask  you,  O  my  brethren !  are 
we  MEN?  Did  our  Creator  make  us  to  be  slaves 
to  dust  and  ashes  like  ourselves?  Are  they  not  dy- 
ing worms  as  well  as  we?  Have  they  not  to  make 
their  appearance  before  the  tribunal  of  Heaven,  to 


20  AN    APPEAL,   ECT. 

answer  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  as  well  as 
we?  Have  we  any  other  Master  but  Jesus  Christ 
alone?  Is  he  not  their  Master  as  well  as  ours? — 
What  right  then,  have  we  to  obe}T  and  call  any  other 
Master,  but  Himself?  How  we  could  be  so  submis- 
sive to  a  gang  of  men,  whom  we  cannot  tell  whether 
they  are  as  good  as  ourselves  or  not,  I  never  could 
conceive.  However,  this  is  shut  up  with  the  Lord, 
and  we  cannot  precisely  tell — but  I  declare,  we 
judge  men  by  their  works. 

The  whites  have  always  been  an  unjust,  jealous, 
unmerciful,  avaricious  and  blood-thirsty  set  of  be- 
ings, always  seeking  after  power  and  authority. — 
We  view  them  all  over  the  confederacy  of  Greece, 
where  they  were  first  known  to  be  any  thing,  (in 
consequence  of  education)  we  see  them  there,  cut- 
ting each  other's  throats — trying  to  subject  each 
other  to  wretchedness  and  misery — to  effect  which, 
they  used  all  kinds  of  deceitful,  unfair,  and  unmer- 
ciful means.  We  view  them  next  in  Rome,  where 
the  spirit  of  tyranny  and  deceit  raged  still  higher. 
We  view  them  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  in  Britain. — 
In  fine,  we  view  them  all  over  Europe,  together 
with  what  were  scattered  about  in  Asia  and  Africa, 
as  heathens,  and  we  see  them  acting  more  like  devils 
than  accountable  men.  But  some  may  ask,  did  not 
the  blacks  of  Africa,  and  the  mulattoes  of  Asia,  go 
on  in  the  same  way  as  did  the  whites  of  Europe.  I 
answer,  no — they  never  were  half  so  avaricious,  de- 
ceitful and  unmerciful  as  the  whites,  according  to 
their  knowledge. 

But  we  will  leave  the  whites  or  Europeans  as 
heathens,  and  take  a  view  of  them  as  Christians,  in 
which  capacity  we  see  them  as  cruel,  if  not  more  so 
than  ever.  In  fact,  take  them  as  a  body,  they  are 
ten  times  more  cruel,  avaricious  and  unmerciful  than 
ever  they  were  ;  for  while  they  were  heathens,  they 
were  bad  enough  it  is  true,  but  it  is  positively  a  fact 
that  they  were  not  quite  so  audacious  as  to  go  and 
take  vessel  loads  of  men,  women  and  children,  and 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  21 

in  cold  blood,  and  through  devilishness,  throw  them 
into  the  sea,  and  murder  them  in  all  kind  of  Ways. 
While  they  were  heathens,  they  were  too  ignorant 
for  such  barbarity.  But  being  Christians,  enlight- 
ened and  sensible,  they  are  completely  prepared 
for  such  hellish  cruelties.  Now  suppose  God  were 
to  give  them  more  sense,  what  would  they  do  ?  If 
it  were  possible,  would  they  not  dethrone  Jehovah 
and  seat  themselves  upon  his  throne  ?  I  therefore, 
in  the  name  and  fear  of  the  Lord  God  of  Heaven 
and  of  earth,  divested  of  prejudice  either  on  the 
side  of  my  colour  or  that  of  the  whites,  advance  my 
suspicion  of  them,  whether  they  are  as  good  by  na- 
ture as  we  are  or  not.  Their  actions,  since  they 
were  known  as  a  people,  have  been  the  reverse,  I 
do  indeed  suspect  them,  but  this,  as  I  before  oberv- 
ed,  is  shut  up  with  the  Lord,  we  cannot  exactly 
tell,  it  will  be  proved  in  succeeding  generations. — 
The  whites  have  had  the  essence  of  the  gospel  as  it 
was  preached  by  my  master  and  his  apostles — the 
Ethiopians  have  not,  who  are  to  have  it  in  its  me- 
ridian splendor — the  Lord  will  give  it  to  them  to 
their  satisfaction.  I  hope  and'  pray  my  God,  that 
they  will  make  good  use  of  it,  that  it  may  be  well 
with  them.* 


*  It  is  my  solemn  belief  that  if  ever  the  world  becomes  Chris- 
tianized, (which  must  certainly  take  place  before  long)  it  will  be 
through  the  means,  under  God  of  the  Blacks,  who  are  now  held  in 
wretchedness,  and  degradation,  by  the  white  Christians  of  the 
world,  who  before  they  learn  to  do  justice  to  us  before  our  Ma- 
ker— and  be  reconciled  to  us,  and  reconcile  us  to  them,  and  by 
that  means  have  clear  consciencies  before  God  and  man. — Send 
out  Missionaries  to  convert  the  Heathens,  many  of  whom  after 
they  cease  to  worship  gods,  v/hich  neither  see  nor  hear,  become 
ten  times  more  the  children  of  Hell,  then  ever  they  were,  why 
what  is  the  reason  ?  Why  the  reason  is  obvious,  they  must  learn 
to  do  justice  at  home,  before  they  go  into  distant  lands,  to  dis- 
play their  charity,  Christianity,  and  benevolence;  when  they  learn 
to  do  justice,  God  will  accept  their  offering,  (no  man  may  think 
that  I  am  against  Missionaries  for  I  am  not3  my  object  is  to  see 
justice  done  at  home,  before  we  go  to  convert  the  Heathens.) 


22  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 


ARTICLE   II. 

OUR    WRETCHEDNESS    IN    CONSEQUENCE    OF    IGNO- 
RANCE. 

Ignorance,  my  brethren,  is  a  mist,  low  down  into 
the  very  dark  and  almost  impenetrable  abyss  in 
which,  our  fathers  for  many  centuries  have  been 
plunged.  The  Christians,  and  enlightened  of  Eu- 
rope, and  some  of  Asia,  seeing  the  ignorance ,  and 
consequent  degradation  of  our  fathers,  instead  of 
trying  to  enlighten  them,  by  teaching  them  that  re- 
ligion and  light  with  which  God  had  blessed  them, 
they  have  plunged  them  into  wretchedness  ten  thou- 
sand times  more  intolerable,  than  if  they  had  left 
them  entirely  to  the  Lord,  and  to  add  to  their  miser- 
ies, deep  down  into  which  they  have  plunged  them 
tell  them,  that  they  are  an  inferior  and  distinct  race 
of  beings,  which  they  will  be  glad  enough  to  recal 
and  swallow  by  and  by.  Fortune  and  misfortune, 
two  inseparable  companions,  lay  rolled  up  in  the 
wheel  of  events,  which  have  from  the  creation  of 
the  world,  and  will  continue  to  take  place  among 
men  until  God  shall  dash  worlds  together. 

When  we  take  a  retrospective  view  of  the  arts 
and  sciences — the  wise  legislators — the  Pyramids, 
and  other  magnificent  buildings — the  turning  of  the 
channel  of  the  river  Nile,  by  the  sons  of  Africa  or 
of  Ham,  among  whom  learning  originated,  and  was 
carried  thence  into  Greece,  where  it  was  improved 
upon  and  refined.  Thence  among  the  Romans,  and 
all  over  the  then  enlightened  parts  of  the  world, 
and  it  has  been  enlightening  the  dark  and  benighted 
minds  of  men  from  then,  down  to  this  day.  I  say, 
when  I  view  retrospectively,  the  renown  of  that 
once  mighty  people,  the  children  of  our  great  pro- 
genitor I  am  indeed  cheered.  Yea  further,  when  I 
view  that  mighty  son  of  Africa,  Hannibal,  one  of 
the  greatest  generals  of  antiquity,  who  defeated  and 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  23 

cut  off  so  many  thousands  of  the  white  Romans  or 
murderers,  and  who  carried  his  victorious  arms,  to 
the  very  gate  of  Rome,  and  I  give  it  as  my  candid 
opinion,  that  had  Carthage  been  well  united  and 
had  given  him  good  support,  he  would  have  carried' 
that  cruel  and  barbarous  city  by  storm.  But  they 
were  dis-united,  as  the  coloured  people  are  now,  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  the  reason  our  nat- 
ural enemies  are  enabled  to  keep  their  feet  on  our 
throats. 

Beloved  brethren — here  let  me  tell  you,  and  be- 
lieve it,  that  the  Lord  our  God,  as  true  as  he  sits 
on  his  throne  in  heaven,  and  as  true  as  our  Saviour 
died  to  redeem  the  world,  will  give  you  a  Hannibal, 
and  when  the  Lord  shall  have  raised  him  up,  and 
given  him  to  you  for  your  possession,  O  my  suffer- 
ing brethren  !  remember  the  divisions  and  conse- 
quent sufferings  of  Carthage  and  of  Hayti.  Read 
the  history  particularly  of  Hayti,  and  see  how  they 
were  butchered  by  the  whites,  and  do  you  take 
warning.  The  person  whom  God  shall  give  you, 
give  him  your  support  and  let  him  go  his  length,  and 
behold  in  him  the  salvation  of  your  God.  God  will 
indeed,  deliver  you  through  him  from  your  deplora- 
ble and  wretched  condition  under  the  Christians  of 
America.  I  charge  you  this  day  before  my  God  to 
lay  no  obstacle  in  his  way,  but  let  him  go. 

The  whites  want  slaves,  and  want  us  for  their 
slaves,  but  some  of  them  will  curse  the  day  they 
ever  saw  us.  As  true  as  the  sun  ever  shone  in  its 
meridian  splendor,  my  colour  will  root  some  of  them 
out  of  the  very  face  of  the  earth.  They  shall  have 
enough  of  making  slaves  of,  and  butchering,  and 
murdering  us  in  the  manner  which  they  have.  No 
doubt  some  may  say  that  I  write  with  a  bad  spirit, 
and  that  I  being  a  black,  wish  these  things  to  occur. 
Whether  I  write  with  a  bad  or  a  good  spirit,  I  say 
if  these  things  do  not  occur  in  their  proper  time,  it 
is  because  the  world  in  which  we  live  does  not  exist, 
and  we  are  deceived  with  reeard  to  its  existence. — 


24  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

It  is  immaterial  however  to  me,  who  believe,  or  who 
refuse — though  I  should  like  to  see  the  whites  re- 
pent peradventure  God  may  have  mercy  on  them, 
some  however,  have  gone  so  far  that  their  cup  must 
be  filled. 

But  what  need  have  I  to  refer  to  antiquity,  when 
Hayti,  the  glory  of  the  blacks  and  terror  of  tyrants, 
is  enough  to  convince  the  most  avaricious  and  stu- 
pid of  wretches — which  is  at  this  time,  and  I  am 
sorry  to  say  it;  plagued  with  that  scourge  of  na- 
tions, the  Catholic  religion ;  but  I  hope  and  pray 
God  that  she  may  yet  rid  herself  of  it,  and  adopt 
in  its  stead  the  Protestant  faith ;  also,  I  hope  that 
she  may  keep  peace  within  her  borders  and  be 
united,  keeping  a  strict  look  out  for  tyrants,  for  if 
they  get  the  least  chance  to  injure  her,  they  will 
avail  themselves  of  it,  as  true  as  the  Lord  lives  in 
heaven.  But  one  thing  which  gives  me  joy  is,  that 
they  are  men  who  would  be  cut  off  to  a  man,  be- 
fore they  would  yield  to  the  combined  forces  of  the 
whole  world — in  fact,  if  the  whole  world  was  com- 
bined against  them,  it  could  not  do  any  thing  with 
them,  unless  the  Lord  delivers  them  up. 

Ignorance  and  treachery  one  against  the  other — a 
grovelling  servile  and  abject  submission  to  the  lash  of 
tyrants,  we  see  plainly,  my  brethren,  are  not  the  na- 
tural elements  of  the  blacks,  as  the  Americans  try  to 
make  us  believe ;  but  these  are  misfortunes  whiehGod 
has  suffered  our  fathers  to  be  enveloped  in  for  many 
ages,  no  doubt  in  consequence  of  their  disobedience 
to  their  Maker,  and  which  do,  indeed,  reign  at  this 
time  among  us,  almost  to  the  destruction  of  all  other 
principles :  for  I  must  truly  say,  that  ignorance,  the 
mother  of  treachery  and  deceit,  gnaws  into  our  very 
vitals.  Ignorance,  as  it  now  exits  among  us,  pro- 
duces a  state  of  things,  Oh  my  Lord  !  too  horrible 
to  present  to  the  world.  Any  man  who  is  curious  to 
see  the  full  force  of  ignorance  developed  among  the 
coloured  people  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
has  only  to  go  into  the  southern  and  western  states 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  25 

of  this  confederacy,  where,  if  he  is  not  a  tyrant,  but 
has  the  feelings  of  a  human  being,  who  can  feel  for 
a  fellow  creature,  he  may  see  enough  to  make  his 
very  heart  bleed !  He  may  see  there,  a  son  take 
his  mother,  who  bore  almost  the  pains  of  death  to 
give  him  birth,  and  by  the  command  of  a  tyrant, 
strip  her  as  naked  as  she  came  into  the  world,  and 
apply  the  cow-hide  to  her,  until  she  falls  a  victim  to 
death  in  the  road  !  He  may  see  a  husband  take  his 
dear  wife,  not  unfrequently  in  a  pregnant  state,  and 
perhaps  far  advanced,  and  beat  her  for  an  unmerci- 
ful wretch,  until  his  infant  falls  a  lifeless  lump  at 
her  feet !  Can  the  Americans  escape  God  Almigh- 
ty? If  they  do,  can  he  be  to  us  a  God  of  Justice  1 
God  is  just,  and  I  know  it — for  he  has  convinced 
me  to  my  satisfaction — I  cannot  doubt  him.  My 
observer  may  see  fathers  beating  their  sons,  mothers 
their  daughters,  and  children  their  parents,  all  to 
pacify  the  passions  of  unrelenting  tyrants.  He  may 
also^  see  them  telling  news  and  lies,  making  mis- 
chief one  upon  another.  These  are  some  of  the 
productions  of  ignorance,  which  he  will  see  prac- 
tised among  my  dear  brethren,  who  are  held  in  un- 
just slavery  and  wretchedness,  by  avaricious  and 
unmerciful  tyrants,  to  whom,  and  their  hellish  deeds, 
I  would  suffer  my  life  to  be  taken  before  I  would 
submit.  And  when  my  curious  observer  comes  to 
take  notice  of  those  who  are  said  to  be  free,  (which 
assertion  I  deny)  and  who  are  making  some  frivo- 
lous pretentions  to  common  sense,  he  will  see  that 
branch  of  ignorance  among  the  slaves  assuming  a 
more  cunning  and  deceitful  course  of  procedure. — 
He  may  see  some  of  my  brethren  in  league  with 
tyrants,  selling  their  own  brethren  into  hell  upon 
earth,  not  dissimilar  to  the  exhibitions  in  Africa,  but 
in  a  more  secret,  servile  and  abject  manner.  Oh 
Heaven  !  I  am  full  !  ! !  I  can  hardly  move  my 
pen  ! !  !  and  as  I  expect  some  will  try  to  put  me  to 
death,  to  strike  terror  into  others,  and  to  obliterate 
from  their  minds  the  notion  of  freedom,  so  as  to 
4 


26  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

keep  my  brethren  the  more  secure  in  wretchedness, 
where  they  will  be  permitted  to  stay  but  a  short 
time  (whether  tyrants  believe  it  or  not) — I  shall  give 
the  world  a  development  of  facts,  which  are  already 
witnessed  in  the  courts  of  heaven.  My  observer 
may  see  some  of  those  ignorant  and  treacherous 
creatures  (coloured  people)  sneaking  about  in  the 
large  cities,  endeavouring  to  find  out  all  strange  col- 
oured people,  where  they  work  and  where  they  re- 
side, asking  them  questions,  and  trying  to  ascertain 
whether  they  are  runaways  or  not,  telling  them,  at 
the  same  time,  that  they  always  have  been,  are,  and 
always  will  be,  friends  to  their  brethren  ;  and,  per- 
haps, that  they  themselves  are  absconders,  and  a 
thousand  such  treacherous  lies  to  get  the  better  in- 
formation of  the  more  ignorant ! ! !  There  have  been 
and  are  at  this  da)r  in  Boston,  New-York,  Philadel- 
phia, and  Baltimore,  coloured  men,  who  are  in 
league  with  tyrants,  and  who  receive  a  great  portion 
of  their  daily  bread,  of  the  moneys  which  they  ac- 
quire from  the  blood  and  tears  of  their  more  misera- 
ble brethren,  whom  they  scandalously  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  our  natural  enemies  !  !  !  !  !  ! 

To  show  the  force  of  degraded  ignorace  and  de- 
ceit among  us  some  farther,  I  will  give  here  an  ex- 
tract from  a  paragragh,  which  may  be  found  in  the 
Columbian  Centinel  of  this  city,  for  September  9, 
1829,  on  the  first  page  of  which,  the  curious  may 
find  an  article,  headed 

"AFFRAY  AND   MUI1DER." 

"  Portsmouth,  (Ohio)  Aug.  22,  1829. 

"".A  most  shocking  outrage  was  committed  in 
!"  Kentucky,  about  eight  miles  from  this  place, 
"  on  14th  iust..  A  negro  driver,  by  the  name  of 
"  Gordon,  who  had  purchased  in  May  land  about 
"  sixty  negroes,  was  taking  them,  assisted  by  an 
"  associate  named  Allen,  and  the  wagoner  who  con- 
"  veyed  the  baggage,  to  the  Mississippi.  The  men 
"  were    hand-culled  and  chained  together,  in  the 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  27 

"usual  manner  for  driving  those  poor  wretches, 
"  while  the  women  and  children  were  suffered  to 
"  proceed  without  incumbrance.  It  appears  that, 
"  by  means  of  a  file  the  negroes,  unobserved,  had  suc- 
"  ceeded  in  separating  the  iron  which  bound  their 
"  hands,  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  abla  to  throw  them 
"  off  at  any  moment.  About  8  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
"  iug,  while  proceeding  on  the  state  road  leading 
"  from  Greenup  to  Vanceburg,  two  of  them  dropped 
"  their  shackles  and  commenced  a  fight,  when  the 
"  wagoner  (Petit)  rushed  in  with  his  whip  to  com- 
"  pel  them  to  desist.  At  this  moment,  every  negro 
"  was  found  to  be  perfectly  at  liberty  ;  and  one  of 
"  them  seizing  a  club,  gave  Petit  a  violent  blow  on 
"  the  head,  and  laid  him  dead  at  his  feet ;  and  Allest, 
"  who  came  to  his  assistance,  met  a  similar  fate, 
"  from  the  contents  of  a  pistol  fired  by  another  of 
"  the  gang.  Gordon  was  then  attacked,  seized  and 
"  held  by  one  of  the  negroes,  whilst  another  fired 
"  twice  at  him  with  a  pistol,  the  ball  of  which  each 
"  time  grazed  his  head,  but  not  proving  effectual, 
"  he  was  beaten  with  clubs,  and  left  for  dead.  They 
"  then  commenced  pillaging  the  wagon,  and  with  an 
"  axe  split  open  the  trunk  of  Gordon,  and  rifled  it 
"  of  the  money,  about  $2,400.  Sixteen  of  the  ne- 
"  groes  then  took  to  the  woods ;  Gordon,  in  the 
"  mean  time,  not  being  materially  injured,  was 
"  enabled,  by  the  assistance  of  one  of  the  women, 
"  to  mount  his  horse  and  flee;  pursued,  however, 
"  by  one  of  the  gang  on  another  horse,  with  a  drawn 
"  pistol ;  fortunately  he  escaped  with  his  life  barely, 
"arriving  at  a  plantation,  as  the  negro  came  in 
"  sight;  who  then  turned  a&ottt  and  retreated. 

"  The  neighbourhood  was  immediately  rallied, 
"and  a  hot  pursuit  given — which,  we  understand^ 
"  has  resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  whole  gan-g  and 
"the  recovery  of  the  greatest,  part  of  the  money. 
"Seven  of  the  negro  men  and  one  woman,  it  is  said 
"  were  engaged  in  the  murders,  and  will  be  brought 
•"  to  trial  at  the  next  couii  in  Greeiiupsburg." 


28  AN  APPEAL,  ETC. 

Here  my  brethren,  I  want  you  to  notice  particu- 
larly in  the  above  article,  the  ignorant  and  deceitful 
actions  of  this  coloured  woman.  I  beg  you  to  view 
it  candidly,  as  for  eternity  !  ! ! !  Here  a  notorious 
lorctch,  with  two  other  confederates  had  sixty  of 
them  in  a  gang,  driving  them  like  brutes — the  men 
ail  in  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  and  by  the  help  of  God 
they  got  their  chains  and  hand-cuffs  thrown  off,  and 
caught  two  of  the  wretches  and  put  them  to  death, 
and  beat  the  other  until  they  thought  he  was  dead, 
and  left  him  for  dead ;  however,  he  deceived  them, 
and  rising  from  the  ground,  this  servile  tvoman  help- 
ed him  upon  his  horse,  and  he  made  his  escape. 
Brethren,  what  do  you  think  of  this  ?  Was  it  the 
natural  fine  feelings  of  this-  woman,  to  save  such  a 
wretch  alive  ?  I  know  that  the  blacks,  take  them 
half  enlightened  and  ignorant,  are  more  humane  and 
merciful  than  the  most  enlightened  and  refined  Eu- 
ropean that  can  be  found  in  all  the  earth.  Let  no 
one  say  that  I  assert  this  because  I  am  prejudiced 
on  the  side  of  my  colour,  and  against  the  whites  or 
Europeans.  For  what  I  write,  I  do  it  candidly, 
for  my  God  and  the  good  of  both  parties  :  Natural 
observations  have  taught  me  these  things ;  there  is 
a  solemn  awe  in  the  hearts  of  the  blacks,  as  it  res- 
pects murdering  men  :*  whereas  the  whites,  (though 
they  are  great  cowards)  where  they  have  the  advan- 
tage, or  think  that  there  are  any  prospects  of  getting 
it,  they  murder  all  before  them,  in  order  to  subject 
men  to  wretchedness  and  degradation  under  them. 
This  is  the  natural  result  of  pride  and  avarice.  But 
I  declare,  the  actions  of  this  black  woman  are  really 
insupportable.  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  think  it 
was  any  thing  but  servile  deceit,  combined  with  the 
most  gross  ignorance  :  for  we  must  remember  that 
humanity,  kindness  and  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  does 
not  consist  in  protecting  devils.  Here  is  a  set  of 
wretches,  who  had  sixty  of  them  in  a  gang,  driving 

*  Which  is  the  reason  the  whites  take  the  advantage  of  us. 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  29 

them  around  the  country  like  brutes,  to  dig  up  gold 
and  silver  for  them,  (which  they  will  get  enough  of 
yet.)  Should  the  lives  of  such  creatures  be  spared  1 
Are  God  and  Mammon  in  league?  What  has  the 
Lord  to  do  with  a  gang  of  desperate  wretches,  who 
go  sneaking  about  the  country  like  robbers — light 
upon  his  people  wherever  they  can  get  a  chance, 
binding  them  with  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  beat  and 
murder  them  as  they  would  rattle-snakes?  Are 
they  not  the  Lord's  enemies  ?  Ought  they  not  to 
be  destroyed?  Any  person  who  will  save  such 
wretches  from  destruction,  is  fighting  against  the 
Lord,  and  will  receive  his  just  recompense.  The 
black  men  acted  like  blockheads.  Why  did  they 
not  make  sure  of  the  wretch  1  He  would  have  made 
sure  of  them,  if  he  could.  It  is  just  the  way  with 
black  men — eight  white  men  can  frighten  fifty  of 
them ;  whereas,  if  you  can  only  get  courage  into 
the  blacks,  I  do  declare  it,  that  one  good  black  man 
can  put  to  death  six  white  men  ;  and  I  give  it  as  a 
fact,  let  twelve  black  men  get  well  armed  for  battle, 
and  they  will  kill  and  put  to  flight  fifty  whites. — 
The  reason  is,  the  blacks,  once  you  get  them  started, 
they  glory  in  death.  The  whites  have  had  us  under 
them  for  more  than  three  centuries,  murdering,  and 
treating  us  like  brutes ;  and,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  wisely 
said,  they  have  never  found  us  out — they  do  not 
know,  indeed,  that  there  is  an  unconquerable  dis- 
position in  the  breasts  of  the  blacks,  which,  when  it 
is  fully  awakened  and  put  in  motion,  will  be  subdu- 
ed, only  with  the  destruction  of  the  animal  exis- 
tence. Get  the  blacks  started,  and  if  you  do  not 
have  a  gang  of  tigers  and  lions  to  deal  with,  I  am  a 
deceiver  of  the  blacks  and  of  the  whites.  How  sixty 
of  them  could  let  that  wretch  escape  unkilled,  I 
cannot  conceive — they  will  have  to  suffer  as  much 
for  the  two  whom,  they  secured,  as  if  they  had  put 
one  hundred  to  death  :  if  you  commence,  make  sure 
work — do  not  trifle,  for  they  will  not  trifle  with  you 
— they  want  us  for  their  slaves,  and  think  nothing 


30  An  appeal,  etc. 

of  murdering  us  in  order  to  subject  us  to  that  wretch- 
ed condition— therefore,  if  there  is  an  attempt  made 
by  us,  kill  or  be  killed.  Now,  I  ask  you,  had  you 
not  rather  be  killed  than  to  be  a  slave  to  a  tyrant, 
who  takes  the  life  of  your  mother,  wife,  and  dear 
little  children  ?  Look  upon  your  mother,  wife  and 
children,  and  answer  God  Almighty ;  and  believe 
this,  that  it  is  no  more  harm  for  you  to  kill  a  man, 
who  is  trying  to  kill  you,  than  it  is  for  you  to  take  a 
chink  of  water  when  thirsty ;  in  fact,  the  man  who 
will  stand  still  and  let  another  murder  him,  is  worse 
than  an  infidel,  and,  if  he  has  common  sense,  ought 
not  to  be  pitied.  The  actions  of  this  deceitful  and 
ignorant  coloured  woman,  in  saving  the  life  of  a 
desperate  wretch,  whose  avaricious  and  cruel  object 
was  to  drive  her,  and  her  companions  in  miseries, 
through  the  country  like  cattle,  to  make  his  fortune 
on  their  carcasses,  are  but  too  much  like  that  of 
thousands  of  our  brethren  in  these  states :  if  any 
tiling  is  whispered  by  one,  which  has  any  allusion 
to  the  melioration  of  their  dreadful  condition,  they 
run  and  tell  tyrants,  that  they  may  be  enabled  to 
keep  them  the  longer  in  wretchedness  and  miseries. 
Oh !  coloured  people  of  these  United  States,  I  ask 
you,  in  the  name  of  that  God  who  made  us,  have 
•we,  iii  consequence  of  oppression,  nearly  lost  the 
spirit  of  man,  and,  in  no  very  trifling  degree,  adopt- 
ed that  of  brutes?  Do  you  answer,  no? — 1  ask 
you,  then,  what  set  of  men  can  you  point  me  to,  in 
all  the  world,  who  are  so  abjectly  employed  by 
their  oppressors,  as  we  are  by  our  natural  enemies  ? 
How  can,  Oh  !  how  can  those  enemies  but  say  that 
we  and  our  children  are  not  of  the  human  family, 
but  were  made  by  our  Creator  to  be  an  inheritance 
to  them  and  theirs  forever?  How  can  the  slave- 
holders but  say  that  they  can  bribe  the  best  colour- 
ed person  in  the  country,  to  sell  his  brethren  for  a 
tricing  sum  of  money,  and  take  that  atrocity  to  con- 
linn  them  in  their  avaricious  opinion,  that  we  were 
made  to  he  slaves  to  them  and  their  children  ?    How 


AS    APPEAL,   ETC.  31 

could  Mr.  Jefferson  but  say,  *"  I  advance  it  there- 
"fore  as  a  suspicion  only,  that  the  blacks,  whether 
"originally  a  distinct  race,  or  made  distinct  by 
"  time  and  circumstances,  are  inferior  to  the  whites 
"  in  the  endowments  both  of  body  and  mind '?" — 
"  It,"  says  he,  "  is  not  against  experience  to  sup- 
"  pose,  that  different  species  of  the  same  genius,  or 
"  varieties  of  the  same  species,  may  possess  differ- 
"  ent  qualifications."  [Here,  my  brethren,  listen 
to  him.]  §&>"  Will  not  a  lover  of  natural  history, 
"  then,  one  who  views  the  gradations  in  all  the  ra- 
"  ces  of  animals  with  the  eye  of  philosophy,  excuse 
"  an  effort  to  keep  those  in  the  department  of  man 
"  as  distinct  as  nature  has  formed  them  ?" — I  hope 
"  you  will  try  to  find  out  the  meaning  of  this  verse 
— its  widest  sense  and  all'its  bearings :  whether  you 
do  or  not,  remember  the  whites  do.  This  very 
verse,  brethren,  having  emanated  from  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, a  much  greater  philosopher  the  world  never  af- 
forded, has  in  truth  injured  us  more,  and  has  been 
as  great  a  barrier  to  our  emancipation  as  any  thing 
that  has  ever  been  advanced  against  us.  I  hope 
you  will  not  let  it  pass  unnoticed.  He  goes  on  fur- 
ther, and  says :  "  This  unfortunate  difference  of 
"colour,  and  perhaps  of  faculty,  is  a  powerful  obsta- 
cle to  the  emancipation  of  these  people.  Many 
"  of  their  advocates,  while  they  wish  to  vindicate  the 
"  liberty  of  human  nature  are  anxious  also  to  pre- 
"  serve  its  dignity  and  beauty.  Some  of  these,  em- 
"  barrassed  by  the  question,  '  What  further  is  to  be 
"  done  with  them  V  join  themselves  in  opposition 
"with  those  who  are  actuated  by  sordid  avarice 
"  only."  Now  I  ask  you  candidly,  my  suffering 
brethren  in  time,  who  are  candidates  for  the  eternal 
worlds,  how  could  Mr.  Jefferson  but  have  given  the 
world  these  remarks  respecting  us,  when  we  are  so 
submissive  to  tliem,  and  so  much  servile  deceit  pre- 
vail among  ourselves — when  we  so  meanly  submit 

*See  his  Notes  on  Virginia,,  page  213. 


32  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

to  their  murderous  lashes,  to  which  neither  the  In- 
dians nor  any  other  people  under  Heaven  would 
submit  1    No,  they  would  die  to  a  man,  before  they 
would  suffer  such  things  from  men  who  are  no  bet- 
ter than  themselves,  and  perhaps  not  so  good.     Yes, 
how  can  our  friends  but  be  embarrassed,  as  Mr. 
Jefferson  says,  by  the  question,    "  What  further  is 
to  be  done  with  these  people  V'  For  while  they  are 
working  for  our  emancipation,  we  are,  by  our  treach- 
ery, wickedness  and  deceit,  working  against  our- 
selves and  our  children — helping  ours,  and  the  ene- 
mies of  God,  to  keep  us  and  our  dear  little  children 
in  their  infernal  chains  of  slavery  !  !  !    Indeed,  our 
friends   cannot   but   relapse   and   join    themselves 
"with  those  who  are  actuated   by  sordid  avarice 
only  !  !  !  !"     For  my  own  part,  I  am  glad  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson has  advanced  his  positions  for  your  sake ;  for 
you  will  either  have  to  contradict  or  confirm  him 
by  your  own  actions,  and  not  by   what  our  friends 
have  said  or  done  for  us  ;  for  those  things  are  other 
men's  labours,  and  do  not  satisfy  the  Americans,  who 
are  waiting  for  us  to  prove  to  them  ourselves,  that 
we  are  men,  before  they  will  be  willing  to  admit  the 
fact ;  for  I  pledge  you  my  sacred  word  of  honour, 
that   Mr.  Jefferson's  remarks  respecting  us,  have 
sunk  deep  into  the  hearts  of  millions  of  the  whites, 
and  never  will  be  removed  this  side  of  eternity. — 
For  how  can  they,  when  we  are  confirming  him 
every  day,  by  our  groveling  submissions  and  treach- 
ery ?    I  aver,  that  when  I  look  over  these  United 
States   of  America,  and   the   world,  and  see  the 
ignorant  deceptions  and  consequent  wretchedness 
of  my  brethren,  I  am  brought  oftimes  solemnly  to 
a  stand,  and  in  the  midst  of  my  reflections  I  ex- 
claim to  my  God,  "  Lord  didst  thou  make  us  to  be 
slaves  to  our  brethren,  the  whites  V     But  when  I 
reflect  that  God*  is  just,  and  that  millions  of  my 
wretched  brethren  would  meet  death  with  glory — 
yea,  more,  would   plunge  into  the  very  mouths  of 
cannons  and  be  torn  into  particles  as  minute  as  the 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  3$ 

atoms  which  compose  the  elements  of  the  earth,  in 
preference  to  a  mean  submission  to  the  lash  of  ty- 
rants, I  am  with  streaming  eyes,  compelled  to  shrink 
back  into  nothingness  before  my  Maker,  and  ex- 
claim again,  thy  will  be  done,  O  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty- 
Men  of  colour,  who  are  also  of  sense,  for  you 
particularly  is  my  appeal  designed.  Our  more  ig- 
norant brethren  are  not  able  to  penetrate  its  value. 
I  call  upon  you  therefore  to  cast  your  eyes  upon  the 
wretchedness  of  your  brethren,  and  to  do  your  ut- 
most to  enlighten  them — go  to  work  and  enlighten 
your  brethren  ! — Let  the  Lord  see  you  doing  what 
you  can  to  rescue  them  and  yourselves  from  degra- 
dation. Do  any  of  you  say  that  you  and  your  fam- 
ily are  free  and  happy,  and  what  have  you  to  do 
with  the  wretched  slaves  and  other  people  ?  So  can 
I  say,  for  I  enjoy  as  much  freedom  as  any  of  you,  if 
I  am  not  quite  as  well  off  as  the  best  of  you.  Look 
into  our  freedom  and  happiness,  and  see  of  what 
kind  they  are  composed  !  !  They  are  of  the  very 
lowest  kind — they  are  the  very  dregs  ! — they  are 
the  most  servile  and  abject  kind,  that  ever  a  people 
was  in  possession  of !  If  any  of  you  wish  to  know 
how  free  you  are,  let  one  of  you  start  and  go 
through  the  southern  and  western  States  of  this  coun- 
try, and  unless  you  travel  as  a  slave  to  a  white  man 
(a  servant  is  a  slave  to  the  man  whom  he  serves)  or 
have  your  free  papers,  (which  if  you  are  not  careful 
they  will  get  from  you)  if  they  do  not  take  you  up 
and  put  you  in  jail,  and  if  you  cannot  give  good  evi- 
dence of  your  freedom,  sell  you  into  eternal  slavery, 
I  am  not  a  living  man  :  or  any  man  of  colour,  im- 
material who  he  is,  or  where  he  came  from,  if  he  is 
not  the  fourth  from  the  negro  race  !  !  (as  we  are 
called)  the  white  Christians  of  America  will  serve 
him  the  same  they  will  sink  him  into  wretchedness 
and  degradation  for  ever  while  he  lives.  And  yet 
some  of  you  have  the  hardihood  to  say  that  you  are 
free  and  haopv  !  May  God  have  mercy  on  your 
5 


34  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

freedom  and  happiness  !  !     I   met  a  coloured  man 
in  the  street  a  short  time  since,  with  a   string  of 
boots  on  his  shoulders ;  we  fell  into  conversation, 
and  in  course  of  which,  I  said  to  him,  what  a  mis- 
erable set  of  people  we  are  !    He  asked,  why  1 — 
Said  I,  we  are  so  subjected  under  the  whites,  that 
we  cannot  obtain  the  comforts  of  life,  but  by  clean- 
ing their  boots  and  shoes,  old  clothes,  waiting  on 
them,  shaving  them  &c.     Said  he,  (with  the  boots 
on  his  shoulders)   "  I  am  completely  happy  !  !  !    I 
never  want  to  live  any  better  or  happier  than  when 
I  can  get  a  plenty  of  boots  and  shoes  to  clean  !  !  !" 
Oh  !  how  can  those   who  are  actuated  by  avarice 
only,  but  think,  that  our  Creator  made  us  to  be  an 
inheritance  to  them  for  ever,  when  they  see  that  our 
greatest  glory  is  centered  in  such  mean  and  low  ob- 
jects 1    Understand  me,  brethren,  I  do  not  mean  to 
speak  against  the  occupations  by  which  we  acquire 
enough  and  sometimes  scarcely  that,  to  render  our- 
selves and  families  comfortable  through  life.     I  am 
subjected  to  the  same  inconvenience,  as  you  all. — 
My  objections  are,  to  our  glorying  and  being  happy 
in  such    low  employments  ;  for  if  we  are  men,  we 
ought  to  be  thankful  to  the  Lord  for  the  past,  and 
for  the  future.      Be  looking  forward  with  thankful 
hearts  to  higher  attainments  than  ivielding  the  razor 
and  cleaning  boots  and  shoes.      The  man  whose  as- 
pirations are  not  above,  and  even  below  these,  is  in- 
deed, ignorant  and  wretched  enough.     I  advance  it 
therefore  to  you,  net  as  a  problematical,  but  as  an  un- 
shaken and  for  ever  immoveable  faet4  that  your  full 
glory  and  happiness,  as  well  as  all   other  coloured 
people  under  Heaven,  shall  never  be  fully  consum- 
mated, but  with  the  entire  emancipation  of  your  en- 
slaved brethren  all  oner  the  world.      You  may  there- 
fore, go  to  work  and  do  what  you  can  to  rescue,  or 
join  in  with  tyrants  to  oppress  them  and  yourselves, 
until  the  Lord  shall  come  upon  you  ail  like  a  thief 
in  the  night.     For  I  believe  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord 
that  our  greatest  happiness  shall  consist  in  working 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  35 

for  the  salvation  of  our  whole  body-  When  this  is 
accomplished  a  burst  of  glory  will  shine  upon  you, 
which  will  indeed  astonish  you  and  the  world.  Do 
any  of  you  say  this  never  will  be  done  ?  I  assure 
you  that  God  will  accomplish  it — if  nothing  else 
will  answer,  he  will  hurl  tyrants  and  devils  into 
atoms  and  make  way  for  his  people.  But  O  my 
brethren  !  I  say  unto  you  again,  you  must  go  to 
work  and  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord. 

There  is  a  great  work  for  you  to  do,  as  trifling  as 
some  of  you  may  think  of  it.  You  have  to  prove 
to  the  Americans  and  the  world,  that  we  are  men, 
and  not  brutes,  as  we  have  been  represented,  and  by 
millions  treated.  Remember,  to  let  the  aim  of  your 
labours  among  your  brethren,  and  particularly  the 
youths,  be  the  dissemination  of  education  and  reli- 
gion.* It  is  lamentable,  that  many  of  our  children 
go  to  school,  from  four  until  they  are  eight  or  ten, 
and  sometimes  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  leave  school 
knowing  but  a  little  more  about  the  grammar  of  their 
language  than  a  horse  does  about  handling  a  mus- 
ket— and  not  a  few  of  them  are  really  so  ignorant, 
that  they  are  unable  to  answer  a  person  correctly, 
general  questions  in  geography,  and  to  hear  them 
read,  would  only  be  to  disgust  a  man  who  has  a 
taste  for  reading ;  which,  to  do  well,  as  trifling  as 
it  may  appear  to  some,  (to  the  ignorant  in  particu- 
lar) is  a  great  part  of  learning.  Some  few  of  them, 
may  make  out  to  scribble  tolerably  well,  over  a  half 
sheet  of  paper,  which  I  believe  has  hitherto  been  a 
powerful  obstacle  in  our  way,  to  keep  us  from  ao 

*  Never  mind  what  the  ignorant  ones  among  us  may  say,  many  of 
whom  when  you  speak  to  them  for  their  good,  and  try  to  enlighten 
their  minds,  laugh  at  you,  and  perhaps  tell  you  plump  to  your  face, 
that  they  want  no  instruction  from  you  or  any  other  Niger,  and  all 
such  aggravating  language.  Now  if  you  are  a  man  of  understand- 
ing and  sound  sense,  I  conjure  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and 
of  all  that  is  good,  to  impute  their  actions  to  ignorance,  and  wink 
at  their  follies,  and  do  your  very  best  to  get  around  them  some  way 
or  other,  for  remember  they  are  your  brethren  ;  aud  I  declare  to 
you  that  it  is  for  your  interests  to  teach  and  enlighten  them. 


56  AN    APPEAI -,    ETC. 

quiring  knowledge.  An  ignorant  father,  who  knows 
no  more  than  what  nature  has  taught  him,  together 
with  what  little  he  acquires  by  the  senses  of  hear- 
ing and  seeing,  finding  his  son  able  to  write  a  neat 
hand,  sets  it  down  for  granted  thai,  he  has  as  good 
learning  as  any  body  ;  the  young,  ignorant  gump, 
hearing  his  rather  or  mother,  who  perhaps  may  be 
ten  times  more  ignorant,  in  point  of  literature,  than 
himself,  extolling  his  learning,  struts  about,  in  the 
full  assurance,  that  his  attainments  in  literature  are 
sufficient  to  take  him  through  the  world,  when,  in 
fact,  he  has  scarcely  any  learning  at  all !  !  !  ! 

I  promiscuously  fell  in  conversatson  once,  with 
an  elderly  coloured  man  on  the  topics  of  education, 
and\of  the  great  prevalency  of  ignorance  among  us  : 
Said  he,  "  I  know  that,  our  people  are  very  ignorant 
"  but  my  son  has  a  good  education  :  I  spent  a  great 
"  deal  of  money  on  his  education  :  he  can  write  as 
"  well  as  any  white  man,  and  I  assure  you  that  no 
u  one  can  fool  him,"  &c.  Said  I,  what  else  can  your 
son  do,  besides  writing  a  good  hand  1  Can  he  post 
a  set  of  books  in  a  mercantile  manner  1  Can  he 
write  a  neat  piece  of  composition  in  prose  or  in 
verse  1  To  these  interogations  he  answered  in  the 
negative.  Said  I,  did  your  son  learn,  while  he  was 
at  school,  the  width  and  depth  of  English  Grammar  1 
To  which  he  also  replied  in  the  negative,  telling  me 
his  son  did  not  learn  these  things.  Your  son,  said 
I,  then,  has  hardly  any  learning  at  all — he  is  almost 
as  ignorant,  and  more  so,  than  many  of  those  who 
never  went  to  school  one  day  in  all  their  lives.  My 
friend  got  a  little  put  out,  and  so  walking  off,  said 
that  his  son  could  write  as  well  as  any  white  man. 
Most  of  the  coloured  people,  when  they  speak  of  the 
education  of  one  among  us  who  can  write  a  neat 
hand,  and  who  perhaps  knows  nothing  but  to  scrib- 
ble and  puff  pretty  fair  on  a  small  scrap  of  paper, 
immaterial  whether  his  words  are  grammatical,  or 
spelt  correctly,  or  not ;  if  it  only  looks  beautiful, 
they  say  he  has  as  good  an  education  as  any  white 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  37 

man — he  can  write  as  well  as  any  white  man,  &c. 
The  poor,  ignorant  creature,  hearing,  this,  he  is 
ashamed,  forever  after,  to  let  any  person  see  him 
humbling  himself  to  another  for  knowledge  but  going 
about  trying  to  deceive  those  who  are  more  ignorant 
than  himself,  he  at  last  falls  an  ignorant  victim  to 
death  in  wretchedness.  I  pray  that  the  Lord  may 
undeceive  my  ignorant  brethren,  and  permit  them 
to  throw  away  pretensions,  and  seek  after  the  sub- 
stance of  learning.  I  would  crawl  on  my  hands 
and  knees  through  mud  and  mire,  to  the  feet  of  a 
learned  man,  where  I  would  sit  and  humbly  suppli- 
cate him  to  instil  into  me,  that  which  neither  devils 
nor  tyrants  could  remove,  only  with  my  life — for  col- 
ored people  to  acquire  learning  in  this  country,  makes 
tyrants  quake  and  tremble  on  their  sandy  founda- 
tion. Why,  what  is  the  matter  1  Why,  they  know 
that  their  infernal  deeds  of  cruelty  will  be  made 
known  to  the  world.  Do  you  suppose  one  man  of 
good  sense  and  learning  would  submit  himself,  his 
father,  mother,  wife  and  children,  to  be  slaves  to  a 
wretched  man  like  himself,  who,  instead  of  compen- 
sating him  for  his  labours,  chains,  hand-cuffs  and 
beats  him  and  family  almost  to  death,  leaving  life 
enough  in  them,  however,  to  work  for,  and  call  him 
master?  No  !  no  !  he  would  cut  his  devilish  throat 
from  ear  to  ear,  and  well  do  slave-holders  know  it. 
The  bare  name  of  educating  the  coloured  people, 
scares  our  cruel  oppressors  almost  to  death.  But  if 
they  do  not  have  enough  to  be  frightened  for  yet,  it 
will  be,  because  they  can  always  keep  us  ignorant, 
and  because  God  approbates  their  cruelties,  with 
which  they  have  been  for  centuries  murdering  us. 
The  whites  shall  have  enough  of  the  blacks,  yet,  as 
true  as  God  sits  on  his  throne  in  Heaven. 

Some  of  our  brethren  are  so  very  full  of  learning, 
that  you  cannot  mention  any  thing  to  them  which 
they  do  not  know  better  than  yourself! ! — nothing  is 
strange  to  them !  !-they  knew  every  thing  years  ago  ! 
— if  any  thing  should  be  mentioned  in  company 


38  AN    APPEAL,  ECT. 

where  they  are,  immaterial  how  important  it  is  re- 
specting us  or  the  world,  if  they  had  not  divulged 
it ;  they  make  light  of  it,  and  affect  to  have  known 
it  long  before  it  was  mentioned  and  try  to  make  all 
in  the  room,  or  wherever  you  may  be,  believe  that 
your  conversation  is  nothing !  ! — not  worth  hearing  ! 
All  this  is  the  result  of  ignorance  and  ill-breeding ; 
for  a  man  of  good-breeding,  sense  and  penetration, 
if  he  had  heard  a  subject  told  twenty  times  over,  and 
should  happen  to  be  in  company  where  one  should 
commence  telling  it  again,  he  would  wait  with  pa- 
tience on  its  narrator,  and  see  if  he  would  tell  it  as 
it  was  told  in  his  presence  before — paying  the  most 
strict  attention  to  what  is  said,  to  see  if  any  more 
Jight  will  be  thrown  on  the  subject :  for  all  men  are 
not  gifted  alike  in  telling,  or  even  hearing  the  most 
simple  narration.  These  ignorant,  vicious,  and 
wretched  men,  contribute  almost  as  much  injury  to 
our  body  as  tyrants  themselves,  by  doing  so  much 
for  the  promotion  of  ignorance  amongst  us;  for 
thejs  making  such  pretensions  to  knowledge,  such 
of  our  youth  as  are  seeking  after  knowledge,  and 
can  get  access  to  them,  take  them  as  criterions  to  go 
.by,  who  will  lead  them  into  a  channel,  where,  un- 

|  less  the  Lord  blesses  them  with  the  privilege  of  see- 
ing their  folly,  they  will  be  irretrievably  lost  for- 
ever, while  in  time  ! !  ! 

!  I  must  close  this  article  by  relating  the  very  heart- 
arending  fact,  that  I  have  examined  school-boys  and 
young  men  of  colour  in  different  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, in  the  most  simple  parts  of  Murray's  English 
Grammar,  and  not  more  than  one  in  thirty  was  able 
to  give  a  correct  answer  to  my  interrogations.     If 

]  tany  one  contradicts  me,  let  him  step  out  of  his  door 
into  the  streets  of  Boston,  New- York,  Philadelphia, 
or  Baltimore,  (no  use  to  mention  any  other,  for  the 
Christians  are  too  charitable  further  south  or  west !) 
— I  say,  let  him  who  disputes  me,  step  out  of  his 
door  into  the  streets  of  either  of  those  four  cities, 
and  promiscuously  collect  one  hundred  school-boys, 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  39 

or  young  men  of  colour,  who  have  been  to  school, 
and  who  are  considered  by  the  coloured  people  to 
have  received  an  excellent  education,  because,  per- 
haps, some  of  them  can  write  a  good  hand,  but  who, 
notwithstanding  their  neat  writing,  may  be  almost 
as  ignorant,  in  comparison,  as  a  horse. — And,  I  say 
it,  he  will  hardly  find  (in  this  enlightened  day,  and 
in  the  midst  of  this  charitable  people)  five  in  one 
hundred,  who,  are  able  to  correct  the  false  grammar 
of  their  language. — The  cause  of  this  almost  uni- 
versal ignorance  among  us,  I  appeal  to  our  school- 
masters to  declare.  Here  is  a  fact,  which  I  this 
very  minute  take  from  the  mouth  of  a  young  col- 
oured man,  who  has  been  to  school  in  this  state 
(Massachusetts)  nearly  nine  years,  and  who  knows 
grammar  this  day,  nearly  as  well  as  he  did  the  day 
he  first  entered  the  school-house,  under  a  white 
master.  "  This  young  man  says :  "My  master 
would  never  allow  me  to  study  grammar."  I  ask- 
ed him,  why  1  "  The  school  committee,"  said  he 
"forbid  the  coloured  children  learning  grammar 
"  — they  would  not  allow  any  but  the  white  children- 
"  to  study  grammar."  It  is  a  notorious  fact,  that 
the  major  part  of  the  white  Americans,  have,  ever 
since  we  have  been  among  them,  tried  to  keep  us: 
ignorant,  and  make  us  believe  that  God  made  us  and' 
our  children  to  be  slaves  to  them  and  theirs.  Oh  £ 
my  God,  have  mercy  on  Christian  Americans  !  !  ! 


ARTICLE   III. 

OUR      WRETCHEDNESS       IN      CONSEQUENCE      OF      THE 
PREACHERS    OF    THE    RELIGION    OF    JESUS    CHRIST; 

Religion,  my  brethren,  is  a  substance  of  deep 
consideration  among  all  nations  of  the  earth.  The 
Pagans  have  a  kind,  as  well  as  the  Mahometans, 
the  Jews  and  the  Christians.  But  pure  and  unde- 
nted religion,  such  as  was  preached  by  Jesus  Christ 


40  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

and  his  apostles,  is  hard  to  be  found  in  all  the  earth. 
God,  through  his  instrument,  Moses,  handed  a  dis- 
pensation of  his  Divine  will,  to  the  children  of  Israel 
after  they  had  left  Egypt  for  the  land  of  Canaan  or 
of  Promise,  who  through  hypocrisy,  oppression  and 
unbelief,  departed  from  the  faith. — He  then,  by  his 
apostles,  handed  a  dispensation  of  his,  together  with 
•  the  will  of  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  Europeans  in  Eu- 
rope, who,  in  open  violation  of  which,  have  made 
merchandise  of  us,  and  it  does  appear  as  though 
they  take  this  very  dispensation  to  aid  them  in  their 
infernal  depredations  upon  us.  Indeed,  the  way  in 
which  religion  was  and  is  conducted  by  the  Euro- 
peans and  their  descendants,  one  might  believe  it 
was  a  plan  fabricated  by  themselves  and  the  devils 
to  oppress  us.  But  hark  !  My  master  has  taught 
me  better  than  to  believe  it — he  has  taught  me  that 
his  gospel  as  it  was  preached  by  himself  and  his 
apostles  remains  the  same,  notwithstanding  Europe 
has  tried  to  mingle  blood  and  opression  with  it. 

It  is  well  known  to  the  Christian  world,  that  Bar- 
tholomew Las  Casas,  that  very  very  notoriously  ava- 
ricious Catholic  priest  or  preacher,  and  adventurer 
with  Columbus  in  his  second  voyage,  proposed  to 
his  countrymen,  the  Spaniards  in  Hispaniola  to  im- 
port the  Africans  from  the  Portuguese  settlement 
in  Africa,  to  dig  up  gold  and  silver,  and  work  their 
plantations  for  them,  to  effect  which,  he  made  a 
voyage  thence  to  Spain,  and  opened  the  subject  to 
his  master,  Ferdinand  then  in  declining  health,  who 
listened  to  the  plan :  but  who  died  soon  after,  and 
left  it  in  the  hand  of  his  successor,  Charles  V.* 
This  wretch,  ("Las  Casas,  the  Preacher,")  suc- 
ceeded so  well  in  his  plans  of  oppression,  that  in 
1503,  the  first  blacks  had  been  imported  into  the 
new  world.  Elated  with  this  success,  and  stimulated 
by  sordid  avarice  only,  he  importuned  Charles  V.  in 


*  See  Butler's   History  of  the  United  States,  vol.   1,  page  24 
See  also,  page  25. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  41 

1511,  to  grant  permission  to  a  Flemish  merchant,  to 
import  4000  blacks  at  one  time.*  Thus  we  see, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  pretended  preacher 
of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  our  common  master, 
our  wretchedness  first  commenced  in  America — 
where  it  has  been  continued  from  1503,  to  this  day, 
1829.  A  period  of  three  hundred  and  twenty-six 
years.  But  two  hundred  and  nine,  from  1620 — 
when  twenty  of  our  fathers  were  brought  into  James- 
town, Virginia,  by  a  Dutch  man  of  war,  and  sold  off 
like  brutes  to  the  highest  bidders ;  and  there  is  not 
a  doubt  in  my  mind,  but  that  tyrants  are  in  hope 
to  perpetuate  our  miseries  under  them  and  their 
children  until  the  final  consumation  of  all  things. — 
But  if  they  do  not  get  dreadfully  deceived,  it  will  be 
because  God  has  forgotten  them. 

The  Pagans,  Jews  and  Mahometans  try  to  make 
proselytes  to  their  religions,  and  whatever  human 
beings  adopt  their  religions  they  extend  to  them 
their  protection.  But  Christian  Americans,  not  on- 
ly hinder  their  fellow  creatures,  the  Africans,  but 
thousands  of  them  will  absolutely  beat  a  coloured 
person  nearly  to  death,  if  they  catch  him  on  his 
knees,  supplicating  the  throne  of  grace.  This  bar- 
barous cruelty  was  by  all  the  heathen  nations  of  an- 
tiquity, and  is  by  the  Pagans,  Jews  and  Mahometans 


*  It  is  not  unworthy  of  remark,  that  the  Portuguese  and  Span- 
iards, were  amor.j,  if  not  the  very  first  Nations  upon  Earth,  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago — But  see  what  those  Chris- 
tians have  come  to  now  in  consequence  of  afflicting  our  fathers  and 
us,  who  have  never  molested,  or  disturbed  them  or  any  other  of  the 
white  Christians,  but  have  they  received  one  quarter  of  what  the 
Lord  will  yet  bring  upon  them,  for  the  murders  they  have  inflicted 
upon  us  1 — They  have  had,  and  in  some  degree  have  now,  sweet  times 
on  our  blood  "and  groans,  the  time  however,  of  bitterness  have  some- 
time since  commenced  with  them. — There  is  a  God  the  Maker  and 
preserver  of  all  things,  who  will  as  sure  as  the  world  exists,  give  all 
his  creatures  their  just  recompense  of  reward  in  this  and  in  the 
world  to  come, — we  may  fool  or  deceive,  and  keep  each  other  in 
the  most  profound  ignorance,  beat  murder  and  keep  each  other  out 
of  what  is  our  lawful  rights,  or  the  rights  of  man,  yet  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  us  to  deceive  or  escape  the  Lord  Almighty^ 

6 


42  AN  APPEAL,  ETC. 

of  the  present  day,  left  entirely  to  Christian  Ameri- 
cans to  inflict  on  the  Africans  and  their  descendants, 
that  their  cup  which  is  nearly  full  may  be  completed, 
I  have  known  tyrants  or  usurpers  of  human  liberty  in 
different  parts  of  this  country  to  take  their  fellow  crea- 
tures, the  coloured  people,  and  beat  them  until  they 
would  scarcely  leave  life  in  them  ;  what  for?  Why 
they  say  "  The  black  devils  had  the  audacity  to  be 
"  found  making  prayers  mid  supplications  to  the 
"  God  ivho  made  them!!!!"  Yes,  I  have  known 
small  collections  of  coloured  people  to  liave  con- 
vened together,  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  wor- 
ship God  Almighty,  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  to  the 
best  of  their  knowledge ;  when  tyrants,  calling 
themselves  patrols,  would  also  convene  and  wait 
almost  in  breathless  silence  for  the  poor  coloured 
people  to  commence  singing  and  praying  to  the 
Lord  our  God,  as  soon  as  they  had  coinmenced, 
the  wretches  would  burst  in  upon  them  and  drag 
them  out  and  commence  beating  them  as  they  would 
rattle-snakes — many  of  whom,  they  Would  beat  so 
unmercifully,  that  they  would  hardly  be  able  to 
crawl  for  weeks  and  sometimes  for  months,  Yet 
the  American  minister  send  out  missionaries  to 
convert  the  heathen,  while  they  keep  us  and  our 
children  sunk  at  tl*eir  feet  in  the  most  abject  igno- 
rance and  wretchedness  that  ever  a  people  was  af- 
flicted with  since  the  world  began.  Will  the  Lord 
suffer  this  people  to  proceed  much  longer  ?  Will  he 
not  stop  them  in  their  career  ?  Does  he  regard  the 
heathens  abroad,  more#than  the  heathens  among  the 
Americans  ?  Surely  the  Americans  must  believe 
that  God  is  partial,  notwithstanding  his  Apostle  Pe- 
ter, declared  before  Cornelius  and  othersihat  he  has 
no  respect  to  persons,  but  in  every  nation  he  that 
feareth  God  and  worketh  righteousness  is  accepted 
with  him. — "  The  word,"  said  he,  "  which  God 
u  Rent  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  preaching  peace, 
"  by   Jesus   Christ,  (he  is  Lord   of  all."*')     Have 

*  See  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  chap.  x.  v. — 25 — 37. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  43 

not  the  Americans  the  Bible  in  their  hands?  Do 
they  believe  it?  Surely  they  do  not.  See  how  they 
treat  us  in  open  violation  of  the  Bible  !  !  They  no 
doubt  will  be  greatly  offended  with  me,  but  if  God 
does  not  awaken  them,  it  will  be,  because  they  are 
superior  to  other  men,  as  they  have  represented 
themselves  to  be.  Our  divine  Lord  and  Master  said, 
"  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
"  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them."  But  an 
American  minister,  with  the  Bible  in  is  hand,  holds 
us  and  our  children  in  the  most  abject  slavery  and 
wretchedness.  Now  I  ask  them,  would  they  like 
for  us  to  hold  them  and  their  children  in  abject 
slavery  and  wretchedness?  No  says  one,  that  ne- 
ver can  be  done — your  are  too  abject  and  ignorant 
to  do  it — -you  are  not  men — your  were  made  to  be 
slaves  to  us,  to  dig  up  gold  and  silver  for  us  and 
our  children.  Know  this,  my  dear  sirs,  that  although 
you  treat  us  and  our  children  now,  as  you  do  your 
domestic  beast — yet  the  final  result  of  all  future 
events  are  known  but  to  God  Almighty  alone,  who 
rules  in  the  armies  of  heaven  and  among  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  earth,  and  who  dethrones  one  earthly 
king  and  sits  up  another,  as  it  seemeth  good  in  his 
holy  sight.  We  may  attribute  these  vicissitudes  to 
what  we  please,  but  the  God  of  armies  and  of  jus^- 
tice  Tides  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  and  the  whole 
American  people  shall  «ee  and  know  it  yet,  to  their 
satisfaction.  I  have  known  pretended  preachers  of 
the  gospel  of  m}r  Master,  who  not  onty  held  us  as 
their  natural  inheritance,  but  treated  us  with  as 
much  rigor  as  any  Infidel  or  Deist  in  the  world — 
just  as  though  they  were  intent  only  on  taking  our 
blood  and  groans  to  glorify  the  Lord  Jesus  JJhrisi. 
The  wicked  and  ungodly,  seeing  their  preachers 
treat  us  with  so  much  cruelly,  they  say  :  our  preach- 
ers, who  must  be  right,  if  any  body  are,  treat  them 
like  brutes,  and  why  cannot  we  ? — They  think  it  is 
no  harm  to  keep  them  in  slavery  and  put  the  whip 
to  them,  and  why  cannot  we  do  the  same  !— They 


44  Ay    APPEAL,    ETC. 

being  preachers  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  if  it 
were  any  harm,  the}^  wcmld  surely  preach  against 
their  oppression  and  do  their  utmost  to  erase  it  from 
the  country  ;  not  only  in  one  or  two  cities,  but  one 
continual  cry  would  be  raised  in  all  parts  of  this 
confederacy,  and  would  cease  only  with  the  com- 
plete overthrow  of  the  system  of  slavery,  in  every 
part  of  the  country.  But  how  far  the  American 
preachers  are  from  preaching  against  slavery  and 
oppression,  which  have  carried  their  country  to  the 
brink  of  a  precipice ;.  to  save  them  from  plunging 
down  the  side  of  which,  will  hardly  be  affected,  will 
appear  in  the  sequel  of  this  paragraph,  which  I 
shall  narrate  just  as  as  it  transpired.  I  remember  a 
Camp  Meeting  in  South  Carolina,  for  which  I  em- 
barked in  a  Steam  Boat  at  Charleston,  and  having 
been  five  or  six  hours  on  the  water,  we  at  last  arriv- 
ed at  the  place  of  hearing,  where  was  a  very  great 
concourse  of  people,  who  were  no  doubt,  collected 
together  to  hear  the  word  of  God,  (that  some  had 
collected  barely  as  spectators  to  the  scene,  I  will 
not  here  pretend  to  doubt,  however,  that  is  left  to 
themselves  and  their  God.)  Myself  and  boat  com- 
panions, having  been  there  a  little  while,  we  were 
all  called  up  to  hear  ;  I  among  the  rest  went  up 
and  took  my  seat — being  seated,  I  fixed  myself  in  a 
complete  position  to  hear  the  word  of  my  Saviour 
and  to  receive  such  as  I  thought  was  authenticated 
by  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  but  to  my  no  ordinary  as- 
tonishment, our  Reverend  gentleman  got  up  and 
told  us  (coloured  people)  that  slaves  must  be  obe- 
dient to  their  masters — must  do  their  duty  to  their 
masters  or  be  whipped — the  whip  was  made  for  the 
backs  of  fools.  &c.  Here  I  pause  for  a  moment,  to 
give  the  world  time  to  consider  what  was  my  sur- 
prise, to  hear  such  preaching  from  a  minister  of  my 
Master,  whose  very  gospel  is  that  of  peace  and  not 
of  blood  and  whips,  as  this  pretended  preacher  tried 
to  make  us  believe.  What  the  American  preachers 
can  think  of  us,  I  aver  this  day  before  my  God,  I 


AN   APPEAL,   ETC.  45 

have  never  been  able  to  define.  They  have  news- 
papers and  monthly  periodicals,  which  they  receive 
in  continual  succession,  but  on  the  pages  of  which, 
you  will  scarcely  ever  find  a  paragraph  respecting 
slavery,  which  is  ten  thousand  times  more  injurious 
to  this  country  than  all  the  other  evils  put  together ; 
and  which  will  be  the  final  overthrow  of  its  govern- 
ment, unless  something  is  very  speedily  done  ;  for 
their  cup  is  nearly  full. — Perhaps  they  will  laugh  at 
or  make  light  of  this ;  but  I  tell  you  Americans ! 
that  unless  you  speedily  alter  your  course,  you  and 
your  Country  are  gone  !  !  !  !  !  !  For  God  Almighty 
will  tear  up  the  very  face  of  the  earth  ! ! !  Will  not 
that  very  remarkable  passage  of  Scripture  be  fulfill- 
ed on  Christian  Americans  ?  Hear  it  Americans  ! ! 
"  He  that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still : — and  he 
"  which  is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still :  and  he  that 
"  is  righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still :  and  he 
"  that  is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still."*  I  hope  that 
the  Americans  may  hear,  but  I  am  afraid  that  they 
have  done  us  so  much  injury,  and  are  so  firm  in  the 
belief  that  our  Creator  made  us  to  be  an  inheritance 
to  them  for  ever,  that  their  hearts  will  be  hardened, 
so  that  their  destruction  may  be  sure.  This  lan- 
guage, perhaps  is  too  harsh  for  the  American's  del- 
icate ears.  But  Oh  Americans  !  Americans !  !  I 
warn  you  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  (whether  you 
will  hear,  or  forbear,)  to  repent  and  reform,  or  you 
are  ruined !  !  !  Do  you  think  that  our  blood  is  hid- 
den from  the  Lord,  because  you  can  hide  it  from  the 
rest  of  the  world,  by  sending  out  missionaries,  and 
by  your  charitable  deeds  to  the  Greeks,  Irish,  &c.  T 
Will  he  not  publish  your  secret  crimes  on  the  house 
top  ?  Even  here  in  Boston,  pride  and  prejudice  have 
got  to  such  a  pitch,  that  in  the  very  nouses  erected 
to  the  Lord,  they  have  built  little  places  for  the  re- 
ception of  coloured  people,  where  they  must  sit  dur- 
ing meeting,  or  keep  away  from  the  house  of  God , 

*See  Revelation,  chap.  xxii.  11. 


48  AST    APPEAL,    ETC. 

and  the  preachers  say  nothing  about  it — much  less 
go  into  the  hedges  and  highways  seeking  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  and  try  to  bring  them 
in  to  their  Lord  and  Master.  There  are  not  a 
more  wretched,  ignorant,  miserable,  and  abject  set 
■of  beings  in  all  the  world,  than  the  blacks  in  the 
Southern  and  Western  sections  of  this  country,  un- 
der tyrants  and  devils.  The  preachers  of  America 
cannot  see  them,  but  they  can  send  out  missionaries 
to  convert  the  heathens,  notwithstanding.  Ameri- 
cans !  unless  you  speedily  alter  your  course  of  pro- 
ceeding, if  God  Almighty  does  not  stop  you,  I  say 
it  in  his  name,  that  you  may  go  on  and  do  as  you 
please  for  ever,  both  in  time  and  eternity — never 
lear  any  evil  at  all !  !!!!!!' 

8^  Addition. — The  preachers  and  people  of  the 
United  States  form  societies  against  Free  Masonry 
and  Intemperance,  and  write  against  Sabbath  break- 
ing, Sabbath  mails,  Infidelity,  <&c.  &c.  But  the 
fountain  head,*  compared  with  which,  all  those 
other  evils  are  comparatively  nothing,  and  from  the 
bloody  and  murderous  head  of  which,  they  receive 
no  trifling  support,  is  hardly  noticed  by  the  Amer- 
icans. This  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  state  of  so- 
ciety in  this  country — it  shows  what  a  bearing  ava- 
rice has  upon  a  people,  when  they  are  nearly  given 
up  by  the  Lord  to  a  hard  heart  and  a  reprobate 
mind,  in  consequence  of  afflicting  their  fellow  crea- 
tures. God  suffers  some  to  go  on  until  they  are  ru- 
ined for  ever !  !  !  !  !  Will  it  be  the  case  with 
the  whites  of  the  United  States  of  America? — 
We  hope  not — we  would  not  wish  to  see  them 
destroyed  notwithstanding,  they  have  and  do  now 
treat  us  more  cruel  than  any  people  have  treated 
-another,  on  this  earth  since  it  came  from  *he  hands 
of  its  Creator  (with  the  exceptions  of  the  French 
and  the  Dutch,  they  treat  us  nearly  as  bad  as  the 
Americans  of  the  United  States.)  The  will  of  God 
must  however,  in  spite  of  us,  be  done. 


Slavery  and  oppression. 


•      -5T  APPEAL,    ETC.  41 

The  English  are  the  best  friends  the  coloured 
people  have  upon  earth.  Though  they  have  op- 
pressed us  a  little  and  have  colonies  now  in  the 
West  Indies,  which  oppress  us  sorely. — Yet  not- 
withstanding they  (the  English)  have  done  one 
hundred  times  more  for  the  melioration  of  our  con- 
dition, than  all  the  other  nations  of  the  earth  put 
together.  The  blacks  cannot  but  respect  the  Eng- 
lish as  a  nation,  notwithstanding  they  have  treated 
us  a  little  cruel. 

There  is  no  intelligent  black  man  who  knows  any 
thing,  but  esteems  a  real  Englishman,  let  him  see 
him  in  what  part  of  the  world  he  will — for  they  are 
the  greatest  benefactors  we  have  upon  earth.  We 
have  here  and  there,  in  other  nations,  good  friends. 
But  as  a  nation,  the  English  are  our  friends.^ 

How  can  the  preachers  and  people  of  America 
believe  the  Bible  1  Does  it  teach  them  any  distinc- 
tion on  account  of  a  man's  colour  *?  Hearken,  Amer- 
icans !  to  the  injunctions  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  to 
his  humble  followers. 

*  "  And  Jesus  came  and  spake  unto  them,  saying, 
"all  power  is  given  unto  me  in  Heaven  and  in 
"  earth. 

"  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptiz- 
"  ing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
"  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"  Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
"  I  have  commanded  you  ;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you 
"  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.      Amen." 

I  declare,  that  the  very  face  of  these  injunctions 
appear  to  be  of  God  and  not  of  man.  They  do  not 
show  the  slightest  degree  of  distinction.  "  Go  ye 
"  therefore,"  (says  my  divine  Master)  "  and  teach 
"  all  nations,"  (or  in  other  words,  all  people)  "  bap- 
tizing them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
"  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Do  you  under- 
stand the  above,  Americans?    We  are  a  people,  not- 

*.See  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  chap,  xxviii.  18,  19,  20.  After  Jesus 
was  risen  from  the  dead. 


48  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

withstanding  many  of  you  doubt  it.  You  have  the 
Bible  in  your  hands,  with  this  very  injunction. — 
Have  you  been  to  Africa,  teaching  the  inhabitants 
thereof  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ?  "  Baptizing 
"  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the_  Son, 
"  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  Have  you  not,  on  the 
contrary,  entered  among  us,  and  learnt  us  the  art  of 
throat-cutting,  by  setting  us  to  fight,  one  against 
another,  to  take  each  other  as  prisoners  of  war,  and 
sell  to  you  for  small  bits  of  calicoes,  old  swords, 
knives,  &c.  to  make  slaves  for  you  and  your  chil- 
dren 1  This  being  done,  have  you  not  brought  us 
among  you,  in  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  like  brutes, 
and  treated  us  with  all  the  cruelties  and  rigour  your 
ingenuity  could  invent,  consistent  with  the  laws  of 
your  country,  which  (for  the  blacks)  are  tyrannical 
enough  ?  Can  the  American  preachers  appeal  unto 
God,  the  Maker  and  Searcher  of  hearts,  and  tell 
him,  with  the  Bible  in  their  hands,  that  they  make 
no  distinction  on  account  of  men's  colour  ?  Can  they 
say,  O  God  !  thou  knowest  all  things — thou  know- 
est  that  we  make  no  distinction  between  thy  crea- 
tures, to  whom  we  have  to  preach  thy  Word  ?  Let 
them  answer  the  Lord  ;  and  if  they  cannot  do  it  in 
the  affirmative,  have  they  not  departed  from  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  their  master?  But  some  may 
say,  that  they  never  had,  or  were  in  possession  of  a 
religion,  which  made  no  distinction,  and  of  course 
they  could  not  have  departed  from  it.  I  ask  you 
then,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  of  what  kind  can 
your  religion  be  ?  Can  it  be  that  which  was  preach- 
ed by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  Heaven?  I  be- 
lieve you  cannot  be  so  wicked  as  to  tell  him  that 
his  Gospel  was  that  of  distinction.  What  can  the 
American  preachers  and  people  take  God  to  be  ? 
Do  they  believe  his  words  ?  If  they  do,  do  they  be- 
lieve that  he  will  be  mocked  ?  Or  do  they  believe, 
because  they  are  whites  and  we  blacks,  that  God 
will  have  respect  to  them  ?  Did  not  God  make  us 
all  as  it  seemed  best  to  himself  ?    What  right,  then, 


A1C    APPEAL,    ETC,  49 

has  one  of  us,  to  despise  another,  and  to  treat  him 
cruel,  on  account  of  his  colour,  which  none,  but  the 
God  who  made  it  can  alter  1  Can  there  be  a  great- 
er absurdity  in  nature,  and  particularly  in  a  free  re- 
publican country  ?  But  the  Americans,  having  in- 
troduced slavery  among  them,  their  hearts  have  be- 
come almost  seared,  as  with  an  hot  iron,  and  God 
has  nearly  given  them  up  to  believe  a  lie  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  truth  !  !  !  And  I  am  awfully  afraid  that 
pride,  prejudice,  avarice  and  blood,  will,  before  long 
prove  the  final  ruin  of  this  happy  republic,  or  land 
of  liberty  !  I  !  1  Can  any  thing  be  a  greater  mockery 
of  religion  than  the  way  in  which  it  is  conducted 
by  the  Americans  ]  It  appears  as  though  they  are 
bent  only  on  daring  God  Almighty  to  do  his  best — 
they  chain  and  handcuff  us  and  our  children  and 
drive  us  around  the  country  like  brutes,  and  go  into 
the  house  of  the  God  of  justice  to  return  him  thanks 
for  having  aided  them  in  their  infernal  cruelties  in- 
flicted upon  us.  Will  the  Lord  suffer  this  people 
to  go  on  much  longer,  taking  his  holy  name  in  vain  *? 
Will  he  not  stop  them,  preachers  and  alH  O 
Americans !  Americans  !  !  I  call  God — I  call  an- 
gels— I  call  men,  to  witness,  that  your  destruction 
is  at  hand,  and  will  be  speedily  consummated  un^ 
less  you  RFPENT, 


ARTICLE  IV. 

OUR     WRETCHEDNESS     IN     CONSEQUENCE     OF    THE 
COLONIZING    PLAN. 

My  dearly  beloved  brethren : — This  is  a  scheme 
on  which  so  many  able  writers,  together  with  that 
very  judicious  coloured  Baltimprean,  have  comment- 
ed, that  I  feel  my  delicacy" about  touching  it.  But 
as  I  am  compelled  to  do  the  will  of  my  Master,  I 
declare,  I  will  give  you  my  sentiments  upon  it. — 
Previous,  however,  to  giving  my  sentiments,  either 
7 


50  AN   APPEAL,   £CT, 

for  or  against  it,  I  shall  give  that  of  Mr.  Henry  Clay, 
together  with  that  of  Mr.  Elias  B.  Caldwell,  Esq. 
of  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  extracted  from  the 
National  Intelligencer,  by  Dr.  Torrey,  author  of  a 
series  of  "  Essays  on  Morals,  and  the  Diffusion  of 
Useful  Knowledge." 

At  a  meeting  which  was  convened  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  for  the  express  purpose  of  agitating 
the  subject  of  colonizing  us  in  some  part  of  the 
world,  Mr.  Clay  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  having 
been  seated  a  little  while,  he  rose  and  spake,  in 
substance,  as  follows :  says  he — *"  That  class  of  the 
**  mixt  population  of  our  country  [coloured  people] 
"  was  peculiarly  situated  ;  they  neither  enjoyed  the 
"  immunities  of  freemen,  nor  were  they  subjected 
"to  the  incapacities  of  slaves,  but  partook,  in  some 
"  degree,  of  the  qualities  of  both.  From  their  con- 
"dition,  and  the  unconquerable  prejudices  result- 
"  ing  from  their  colour,  they  never  could  amalga- 
"  mate  with  the  free  whites  of  this  country.  It  was 
"  desirable,  therefore,  as  it  respected  them,  and  the 
"  residue  of  the  population  of  the  country,  to  drain 
"  them  off.  Various  schemes  of  colonization  had 
"  been  thought  of,  and  a  part  of  our  continent,,  it 
"  was  supposed  by  some,  might  furnish  a  suitable 
"  establishment  for  them.  But,  for  his  part,  Mr.  C. 
*■  said,  he  had  a  decided  preference  for  some  part  of 
"  the  Coast  of  Africa.  There  ample  provision 
"  might  be  made  for  the  colony  itself,  and  it  might 
"  be  rendered  instrumental  to  the  introduction  into 
"  that  extensive  quarter  of  the  globe,  of  the  arts, 
"civilization,  and  Christianity."  [Here  I  ask  Mr. 
Clay,  what  kind  of  Christianity  ?  Did  he  mean 
such  as  they  have  among  the  Americans — distinc- 
tion, whip,  blood  and  oppression  ?  I  pray  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  forbid  it.]  "  There,"  said  he,  f  was 
"  a  peculiar,  a  moral  fitness,  in  restoring  them  to  the 
"  land  of  their  fathers,  and  if  instead  of  the  evils  and 

*  See  Dr.  Torrey's  Portraiture  of  Domestic  Slavery  in  the  Unit- 
ed States,  page  R5,  86. 


AN   APPEAL,  ETC-  ;5£ 

*'  sufferings  which  we  had  been  the  innocent  cause 
""  of  inflicting  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Africa,  we 
**  can  transmit  to  her  the  blessings  of  our  arts,  our 
"  civilization,  and  our  religion.  May  we  not  hojpe 
"  that  America  will  extinguish  a  great  portion  of 
"  that  moral  debt  which  she  has  contracted  to  that 
"unfortunate  continent?  Can  there  be  a  nobler 
"  cause  than  that  which,  whilst  it  proposes,  &c.  *  * 
##**-*  [you  know  what  this  means.]  "contem- 
""  plates  the  spreading  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life,, 
"and  the  possible  redemption  from  ignorance  and 
"  barbarism  of  a  benighted  quarter  of  the  globe  1" 

Before  I  proceed  any  further,  I  solicit  your  no- 
tice, brethren,  to  the  foregoing  part  of  Mr.  Clay's 
speech,  in  which  he  says,  (#f4ook  above)  "and  if, 
"instead  of  the  evils  .and  sufferings,  which  we  had 
"  been  the  innocent  cause  of  inflicting,"  &c— 
What  this  very  learned  statesman  could  have  been 
thinking  about,  when  he  said  in  his  speech,  "  we  had 
"  been  the  innocent  cause  of  inflicting,"  &c,  I  have 
never  been  able  to  conceive.  Are  Mr.  Clay  and 
the  rest  of  the  Americans,  innocent  of  the  blood 
and  groans  of  our  fathers  and  us, -their  children  % — 
Every  individual  may  plead  innocence,  if  he  pleases, 
but  God  will,  before  long,  separate  the  innocent 
from  the  guilty,  unless  someting  is  speedily  done— < 
which  I  suppose  will  hardly  be,  so  that  their  de- 
struction may  be  sure.  Oh  Americans  !  let  me  tell 
you,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  it  will  be  good  for 
you,  if  you  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
but  if  you  do  not,  you  are  ruined  !  !  !  Some  of  you 
are  good  men ;  but  the  will  of  my  God  must  be 
done.  Those  avaricious  and  ungodly  tyrants  among 
you,  I  am  awfully  afraid  will  drag  down  the  ven- 
geance of  God  upon  you.  When  God  Almighty 
commences  his  battle  on  the  continent  of  America, 
for  the  oppression  of  his  people,  tyrants  will  wish 
they'never  were  born. 

But  to  return  to  Mr.  Clay,  whence  I  digressed. 
He  says,  "  It  was  proper  and  necessary   distinctly 


62  Atf    APPEAL,    ETC. 

<e  to  state,  that  he  understood  it  constituted  no  part 
"  of  the  object  of  this  meeting,  to  touch  or  agitate 
"in  the  slightest  degree,  a  delicate  question,  con- 
"  nected  with  another  portion  of  the  coloured  popu- 
"  lation  of  our  country.  It  was  not  proposed  to  de- 
"  liberate  upon  or  consider  at  all,  any  question  of 
"emancipation,  or  that  which  was  connected  with 
"  the  abolition  of  slavery.  It  was  upon  that  condi- 
"  tion  alone,  he  was  sure,  that  many  gentlemen  from 
"  the  South  and  the  West,  whom  he  saw  present, 
"  had  attended,  or  could  be  expected  to  co-operate. 
"  It  was  upon  that  condition  only,  that  he  himself 
"  had  attended." — That  is  to  say,  to  fix  a  plan  to  get 
those  of  the  coloured  people,  who  are  said  to  be 
free,  away  from  among  those  of  our  brethren  whom 
they  unjustly  hold  in  bondage,  so  that  they  may  be 
enabled  to  keep  them  the  more  secure  in  ignorance 
and  wretchedness,  to  support  them  and  their  chil- 
dren, and  consequently  they  would  have  the  more 
obedient  slaves.  For  if  the  free  are  allowed  to  stay 
among  the  slaves,  they  will  have  intercourse  to- 
gether, and,  of  course,  the  free  will  learn  the  slaves 
bad  habits,  by  teaching  them  that  they  are  .MEN, 
as  well  as  other  people,  and  certainly  ought  and 
must  be  FREE. 

I  presume,  that  every  intelligent  man  of  colour 
must  have  some  idea  of  Mr.  Henry  Clay,  original- 
ly of  Virginia,  but  now  of  Kentucky ;  they  know 
too,  perhaps,  whether  he  is  a  friend,  or  a  foe  to  the 
coloured  citizens  of  this  country,  and  of  the  world. 
This  gentleman,  according  to  his  own  words,  had 
been  highly  favoured  and  blessed  of  the  Lord, 
though  he  did  not  acknowledge  it ;  but,  to  the  con- 
trary, he  acknowledged  men,  for  all  the  blessings 
with  which  God  had  favoured  him.  At  a  public 
dinner,  given  him  at  Fowler's  Garden,  Lexington, 
Kentucky,  he  delivered  a  public  speech  to  a  very 
large  concourse  of  people — in  the  concluding  clause 
of  which,  he  says,  "And  now,  my  friends  and  fel- 
"low  citizens,  I  cannot  part  from  you,  on  possi- 


AN    APPEAL,   ETC.  53 

"  bly  the  last  occasion  of  my  ever  publicly  addres- 
"  sing  you,  without  reiterating  the  expression  of 
"  my  thanks,  from  a  heart  overflowing  with  grati- 
"  tude.  I  came  among  you,  now  more  than  thirty 
"  years  ago,  an  orphan  boy,  pennyless,  a  stranger  to 
"  you  all,  without  friends,  without  the  favour  of  the 
"  great,  you  took  me  up,  cherished  me,  protected 
"  me,  honoured  me,  you  have  constantly  poured 
"  upon  me  a  bold  and  unabated  stream  of  innumer- 
"  able  favours,  time  which  wears  out  every  thing 
"  has  increased  and  strengthened  your  affection  for 
"  me.  I  When  I  seemed  deserted  by  almost  the 
"  whole  world,  and  assailed  by  almost  every  tongue, 
"and  pen,  and  press,  you  have  fearlessly  and  man- 
"  fully  stood  by  me,  with  unsurpassed  zeal  and  un- 
"  diminished  friendship.  When  I  felt  as  if  I  should 
"  sink  beneath  the  storm  of  abuse  and  detraction, 
"which  was  violently  raging  around  me,  I  have 
"  found  myself  upheld  and  sustained  by  your  en- 
"  couraging  voices  and  approving  smiles.  I  have 
"  doubtless,  committed  many  faults  and  indiscre- 
"  tions,  over  which  you  have  thrown  the  broad  man- 
"  tie  of  your  charity.  But  I  can  say,  and  in  the 
"  presence  of  God  and  in  this  assembled  multitude,  I 
"  will  say,  that  I  have  honestly  and  faithfully  serv- 
"  ed  my  couutry — that  I  have  never  wronged  it — 
"and  that,  however  unprepared,  I  lament  that  I  am 
"  to  appear  in  the  Divine  presence  on  other  ac- 
counts, I  invoke  the  stern  justice  of  his  judgment 
"  on  my  public  conduct,  without  the  slightest  ap- 
"  prehension  of  his  displeasure." 

Hearken  to  this  Statesman  indeed,  but  no  philan- 
thropist, whom  God  sent  into  Kentucky,  an  orphan 
boy,  pennyless,  and  friendless,  where  he  not  only 
gave  him  a  plenty  of  friends  and  the  comforts  of  life, 
but  raised  him  almost  to  the  very  highest  honour  in 
the  nation,  where  his  great  talents,  with  which  the 
Lord  has  been  pleased  to  bless  him,  has  gained  for 
him  the  affection  of  a  great  portion  of  the  people 
with  whom  he  had  to  do.      But  what  has  this  gen- 


51  AN    APPEAX,   £TC 

tleman  done  for  the  Lord,  after  having  done  so  much 
for  him  ?  The  Lord  has  a  suffering  people,  whose 
moans  and  groans  at  his  feet  for  deliverance  from 
oppression  and  wretchedness, pierce  the  very  throne 
of  Heaven,  and  call  loudly  on  the  God  of  Justice, 
to  be  revenged.  Now,  what  this  gentleman,  who 
is  so  highly  favoured  of  the  Lord,  has  done  to  lib- 
erate those  miserable  victims  of  oppression,  shall 
appear  before  the  world,  by  his  letters  to  Mr.  Gal- 
latin, Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary to  Great  Britain,  dated  June  19,  1826. — 
Though  Mr.  Clay  was  writing  for  the  States,  yet 
nevertheless,  it  appears,  from  the  very  face  of  his 
letters  to  that  gentleman,  that  he  was  as  anxious,  if 
not  more  so,  to  get  those  free  people  and  sink  them 
into  wretchedness,  as  his  constituents,  for  whom  he 
wrote. 

The  Americans  of  North  and  of  South  America, 
including  the  West  India  Islands — no  trifling  por- 
tion of  whom  were,  for  stealing,  murdering,  &c. 
compelled  to  flee  from  Europe,  to  save  their  necks 
or  banishment,  have  effected  their  escape  to  this 
continent,  where  God  blessed  them  with  all  the 
comforts  of  life — He  gave  them  a  plenty  of  every 
thing  calculated  to  do  them  good — not  satisfied  with 
this,  however,  they  wanted  slaves,  and  wanted  us 
for  their  slaves,  who  belong  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
no  other,  who  we  shall  have  to  serve  instead  of  ty- 
rants.— I  say,  the  Americans  want  us,  the  property 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  serve  them. .  But  there  is  a 
*day  fast  approaching,  when  (unless  there  is  a  uni- 
versal repentance  on  the  part  of  the  whites,  which 
will  scarcely  .take  place,  they  have  got  to  be  so  har- 
dened in  consequence  of  our  blood,  and  so  wise  in 
their  own  conceit.)  To  be  plain  and  candid  with 
*you,  Americans  !  I  say  that  the  day  is  fast  approach- 
ing, when  there  will  be  a  greater  time  on  the  conti- 
nent of  America,  than  ever  was  witnessed  upon  this 
earth,since  it  came  from  the  hand  of  its  Creator^  Some 
of  you  have  done  us  so  much  injury, that  you  will  nev- 


AK   APPEAL,    ETC.  5& 

er  be  able  to  repent. — Your  cup  must  be  filled. — You 
want  us  for  your  slaves,  and  shall  have  enough  of  us 
— God  is  just,  who  will  give  you  your  Jill  of  us.  But 
Mr.  Henry  Clay,  speaking  to  Mr.  Gallatin,  respect- 
ing coloured  people,  who  had  effected  their  escape 
from  the  U.  States  (or  to  them  hell  upon  earth  !  !  !) 
to  the  hospitable  shores  of  Canada,*  from  whence  it 
would  cause  more  than  the  lives  of  the  Americans  to 
get  them,  to  plunge  into  wretchedness — he  says : 
"  The  General  Assembly  of  Kentucky,  one  of  the 
"  states  which  is  most  affected  by  the  escape  of  slaves 
"into  Upper  Canada,  has  again,  at  their  session 
"  which  has  just  terminated,  invoked  the  interposi- 
"  tion  of  the  General  Government.  In  the  treaty 
"  which  has  been  recently  concluded  with  the  Uni- 
"  ted  Mexican  States,  and  which  is  now  under  the 
"  consideration  of  the  Senate,  provision  is  made  for 
"  the  restoration  of  fugitive  slaves.  As  it  appears 
"  from  your  statements  of  what  passed  on  that  sub- 
"  ject,  with  the  British  Plenipotentiaries,  that  they 
"  admitted  the  correctness  of  the  principle  of  resto- 
"  ration,  it  is  hoped  that  you  will  be  able  to  suc- 
"  ceed  in  making  satisfactory  arrangements." 

There  are  a  series  of  these  letters,  all  of  which  are 
to  the  same  amount ;  some  however,  presenting  a 
face  more  of  his  own  responsibility.  I  wonder  what 
would  this  gentleman  think,  if  the  Lord  should  give 
him  among  the  rest  of  his  blessings  enough  of  slaves? 
Could  he  blame  any  other  being  but  himself?  Do* 
we  not  belong  to  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  What  business 
has  he  or  any  body  else,  to  be  sending  letters  about 
the  world  respecting  us  ?  Can  we  not  go  where  we- 
want  to,  as  well  as  other  people,  only  if  we  obey  the- 
voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  This  gentleman,  (Mr.  Hen- 
ry Clay)  not  only  took  an  active  part  in  this  coloniz- 
ing plan,  but  was  absolutely  chairman  of  a  meeting 
held  at  Washington,  the  21stday  of  December  1816,f 

*  Among  the  English,  our  real  friends  and  benefactors, 
t  In  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  it  should  read  181 6,  as  above, 
and  not  1826,  as  it  there  appears. 


56  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

to  agitate  the  subject  of  colonizing  us  in  Africa. — 
Now  I  appeal  and  ask  every  citizen  of  these  United 
States  and  of  the  world,  both  white  and  black,  who 
has  any  knowledge  of  Mr.  Clay's  public  labor  for 
these  States — I  want  you  candidly  to  answer  the 
Lord,  who  sees  the  secrets  of  our  hearts. — Do  you 
believe  that  Mr.  Henry  Clay,  late  Secretary  of  State, 
and  now  in  Kentucky,  is  a  friend  to  the  blacks,  fur- 
ther, than  his  personal  interest  extends  7  Is  it  not 
his  greatest  object  and  glory  upon  earth,  to  sink  us 
into  miseries  and  wretchedness  by  making  slaves  of 
us,  to  work  his  plantation  to  enrich  him  and  his  fami- 
ly? Does  he  care  a  pinch  of  snuff  about  Africa — 
whether  it  remains  a  land  of  Pagans  and  of  blood,  or 
of  Christians,  so  long  as  he  gets  enough  of  her  sons 
and  daughters  to  dig  up  gold  and  silver  for  him  1  If 
he  had  no  slaves,  and  could  obtain  them  in  no  other 
way  if  it  were  not,  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  his  coun- 
try, which  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves  (which 
act  was,  indeed,  more  through  apprehension  than 
humanity)  would  he  not  try  to  import  a  few  from 
Africa,  to  work  his  farm  ?  Would  he  work  in  the  hot 
sun  to  earn  his  bread,  if  he  could  make  an  Afri- 
can work  for  nothing,  particularly,  if  he  could  keep 
him  in  ignorance  and  make  him  believe  that  God 
made  him  for  nothing  else  but  to  work  for  him  1  Is 
not  Mr.  Clay  a  white  man,  and  too  delicate  to  work 
in  the  hot  sun  ! !  Was  he  not  made  by  his  Creator  to 
sit  in  the  shade,  and  make  the  blacks  work  without 
remuneration  for  their  services,  to  support  him  and 
his  family ! ! !  I  have  been  for  some  time  taking  notice 
of  this  man's  speeches  and  public  writings,  but  never 
to  my  knowledge  have  I  seen  any  thing  in  his  writ- 
ings which  insisted  on  the  emancipation  of  slavery, 
which  has  almost  ruined  his^  country.  Thus  we  see 
the  depravity  of  men's  hearts,  when  in  pursuit  only  of 
gain — particularly  when  they  oppress  their  fellow 
creatures  to  obtain  that  gain — God  suffers  some  to 

o  on  until  they  are  lost  forever.     This  same  Mr. 

lay,  wants  to  know,  what  he  has  done,  to  merit  the 


§c 


AJt   APPEAL,  BTC.  £7 

disapprobation  of  the  American  people.  In  a  pub- 
lic speech  delivered  by  him,  he  asked :  "  Did  I  in- 
"  volve  my  country  in  an  unnecessary  war?"  to  mer- 
it the  censure  of  the  Americans — "  Did  I  bring 
"  obliquy  upon  the  nation,  or  the  people  whom  I 
"  represented  ? — did  I  ever  lose  any  opportunity  to 
"  advance  the  fame,  honor  and  prosperity  of  this 
"  State  and  the  Union  ?"  How  astonishing  it  is, 
for  a  man  who  knows  so  much  about  God  and  his 
ways, as  Mr.  Clay,  to  ask  such  frivolous  questions'? 
Does  he  believe  that  a  man  of  his  talents  and  stand- 
ing in  the  midst  of  a  people,  will  get  along  unnoticed 
by  the  penetrating  and  all  seeing  eye  of  God,  who  is 
continually  taking  cognizance  of  the  hearts  of  men? 
Is  not  God  against  him,  for  advocating  the  murder- 
ous cause  of  slavery  7  If  God  is  against  him,  what 
can  the  Americans,  together  with  the  whole  world 
do  for  him  ?  Can  they  save  him  from  the  hand  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? 

I  shall  now  pass  in  review  the  speech  of  Mr.  Eli- 
as  B.  Caldwell,  Esq.  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
extracted  from  the  same  page  on  which  Mr.  Clay's 
will  be  found.  Mr.  Caldwell,  giving  his  opinion 
respecting  us,  at  that  ever  memorable  meeting,  he 
says :  "  The  more  you  improve  the  condition  of 
"  these  people,  the  more  you  cultivate  their  minds, 
"  the  more  miserable  you  make  them  in  their  pre- 
"  sent  state.  You  give  them  a  higher  relish  for 
"  those  privileges  which  they  can  never  attain,  and 
"  turn  what  we  intend  for  a  blessing  into  a  curse." 
Let  me  ask  this  benevolent  man,  what  he  means  by 
a  blessing  intended  for  us  ?  Did  he  mean  sinking 
us  and  our  children  into  ignorance  and  wretched- 
ness, to  support  him  and  his  family?  What  he 
meant  will  appear  evident  and  obvious  to  the  most 
ignorant  in  the  world  fl£»  See  Mr.  Caldwell's  in- 
tended blessings  for  us,  O  !  my  Lord ! !  "  No," 
said  he,  "  if  they  must  remain  in  their  present  situa-. 
"  tion,  keep  them  in  the  lowest  state  of  degradation 
"  and  ignorance.     The  nearer  you  bring  them  to 


58  AX    APPEAL,    ETC. 

"  the  condition  of  brutes,  the  better  chance  do  you 
"  give  them  of  possessing  their  apathy"  Here  I 
pause  to  get  breath,  having  labored  to  extract  the 
above  clause  of  this  gentleman's  speech,  at  that  col- 
onizing meeting.  I  presume  that  every  body  knows 
the  meaning  of  the  word  "  apathy" — if  any  do  not, 
let  him  get  Sheridan's  Dictionary,  in  which  he  will 
find  it  explained  in  full.  I  solicit  the  attention  of 
the  world,  to  the  foregoing  part  of  Mr.  Caldwell's 
speech,  that  they  may  see  what  man  will  do  with 
his  fellow  men,  when  he  has  them  under  his  feet. 
To  what  length  will  not  man  go  in  iniquity  when 
given  up  to  a  hard  heart,  and  reprobate  mind,  in 
consequence  of  blood  and  oppression  1  The  last 
clause  of  this  speech,  which  was  written  in  a  very 
artful  manner,  and  which  will  be  taken-for  the  speech 
of  a  friend,  without  close  examination  and  deep 
penetration,  I  shall  now  present.  He  says,  "  surely, 
"  Americans  ought  to  be  the  last  people  on  earth, 
"  to  advocate  such  slavish  doctrines,  to  cry  peace 
"  and  contentment  to  those  who  are  deprived  of  the 
"  privileges  of  civil  liberty,  they  who  have  so  large- 
"  ly  partaken  of  its  blessings,  who  know  so  well 
"  how  to  estimate  its  value,  ought  to  be  among  the 
"  foremost  to  extend  it  to  others."  The  real  sense 
and  meaning  of  the  last  part  of  Mr.  Caldwell's  speech 
is,  get  the  free  people  of  colour  away  to  Africa, 
from  among  the  slaves,  where  they  may  at  once  be 
blessed  and  happy,  and  those  who  we  hold  in  sla- 
very, will  be  contented  to  rest  in  ignorance  and 
wretchedness,  to  dig  up  gold  and  silver  for  us  and 
our  children.  Men  have  indeed  got  to  be  so  cun- 
ning, these  days,  that  it  would  take  the  eye  of  a 
Solomon  to  penetrate  and  find  them  out. 

fcf* Addition. — Our  dear  Redeemer  said,  "There- 
"  fore,  whatsoever  ye  have  spoken  in  darkness,  shall 
"be  heard  in  the  light;  and  that  which  ye  have 
"  spoken  in  the  ear  in  closets,  shall  be  proclaimed 
"  upon  the  house  tops." 

How  obviously   this   declaration   of   our    Lord 


Alf    APPJEAL,   ETC.  59 

has  been  shown  among  the  Americans  of  the  Uni- 
ted States.  They  have  hitherto  passed  among 
some  nations,  who  do  not  know  any  thing  about 
their  internal  concerns,  for  the  most  enlighten- 
ed, humane,  charitable,  and  merciful  people  upon 
earth,  when  at  the  same  time  they  treat  us,  the 
(coloured  people)  secretly  more  cruel  and  unmer- 
ciful than  any  other  nation  upon  earth. — It  is  a  fadt, 
that  in  our  Southern  and  Western  States,  there  are 
millions  who  hold  us  in  chains  or  in  slavery,  whose 
greatest  object  and  glory,  is  centered  in  keeping  us 
sunk  in  the  most  profound  ignorance  and  stupidity, 
to  make  us  work  without  remunerations  for  our  ser- 
vices. Many  of  whom  if  they  catch  a  coloured  per- 
son, whom  they  hold  in  unjust  ignorance,  slavery 
and  degradation,  to  them  and  their  children,  with  a 
book  in  his  hand,  will  beat  him  nearly  to  death.  I 
heard  a  wretch  in  the  state  of  North  Carolina  said, 
that  if  any  man  would  teach  a  black  person  whom 
he  held  in  slavery,  to  spell,  read  or  write,  he  would 
prosecute  him  to  the  very  extent  of  the  law.-^e- 
Said  the  ignorant  wretch,*  "  a  Nigar,  ought  not  to 
have  any  more  sense  than  enough  to  wprk  for  his 
master."  May  I  not  ask  to  fatten  the  wretch  and 
his  family  1 — These  and  similar  cruelties  these 
Christians  have  been  for  hundreds  of  years  inflict- 
ing on  our  fathers  and  us  in  the  dark,  God  has  how- 
ever, very  recently  published  some  of  their  secret 
crimes  on  the  house  top,  .that  the  world  may  ga^e 
on  their  Christianity  and  see  of  what  kind  it  is  com- 
posed.— Georgia  for  instance,  God  has  completely 
shown  to  the  world,  the  Christianity  among  its  white 
inhabitants.  A  law  has  recently  passed  the  Legis- 
lature of  this  republican  State  (Georgia)  prohibit- 
ing all  free  or  slave  persons  of  colour,  from  learn- 
ing to  read  or  write  ;  another  law  has  passed  the  r«- 

*  It  is  a  fact,  that  in  all  our  Slave-holding  States  (in  the  countries) 
there  are  thousands  of  the  whites,  who  are  almost  as  ignorant  in 
comparison  as  horses,  the  most  they  know,  is  to  beat  the  coloured 
people,  which  some  of  them  shall  have  their  hearts  full  of  yet. 


60  an  appeal,  etc. 

publican  House  of  Delegates,  (but  not  the  Senate) 
in  Virginia,  to  prohibit  all  persons  of  colour,  (free 
and  slave)  from  learning  to  read  or  write,  and  even 
to  hinder  them  from  meeting  together  in  order  to 
worship  our  Maker  ! !  ! ! ! ! — Now  I  solemly  appeal, 
to  the  most  skilful  historians  in  the  world,  and  all 
those  who  are  mostly  acquainted  with  the  histories 
of  the  Antideluvians  and  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
to  show  me  a  parallel  of  barbarity.  Christians  !  ! 
Christians!!!  I  dare  you  to  show  me  a  parallel 
of  cruelties  in  the  annals  of  Heathens  or  of  Devils, 
with  those  of  Ohio,  Virginia  and  of  Georgia — know 
the  world  that  these  things  were  before  done  in  the 
dark,  or  in  a  corner  under  a  garb  of  humanity  and 
religion.  God  has  however,  taken  of  the  fig-leaf 
covering,  and  made  them  expose  themselves  on  the 
house  top.  I  tell  you  that  God  works  in  many 
ways  his  wonders  to  perform,  he  will  unless  they 
repent,  make  them  expose  themselves  enough  more 
yet  to  the  world. — See  the  acts  of  the  Christians  in 
FLORIDA,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  and  KEN- 
TUCKY— was  it  not  for  the  reputation  of  the 
house  of  my  Lord  and  Master,  I.  would  mention 
here,  an  act  of  cruelty  inflicted  a  few  days  since  on 
a  black  man,  by  the  white  Christians  in  the  PARK 
STREET  CHURCH,  in  this  (CITY)  which  is 
almost  enough  to  make  Demons  themselves  quake 
and  tremble  in  their  FIREY  HABITATIONS.— 
Oh  !  my  Lord  how  refined  in  iniquity  the  whites 
have  got  to  be  in  consequence  of  our  blood* — what 
kind  ! !  Oh  !  what  kind  ! ! !  of  Christianity  can  be 
found  this  day  in  all  the  earth  !!!!!! 

I  write  without  the  fear  of  man,  I  am  writing  for 
my  God,  and  fear  none  but  himself;  they  may  put 
me  to  death  if  they  choose — (I  fear  and  esteem  a 

*  The  Blood  of  our  fathers  who  have  been  murdered  by  the 
whites,  and  the  groans  of  our  Brethren,  who  are  now  held  in  cruel 
ignorance,  wretchedness  and  slavery  by  them,  cry  aloud  to  the  Ma- 
ker of  Heaven  and  of  earth,  against  the  whole  continent  of  Ameri- 
ca., for  redresses. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  61 

good  man  however,  let  him  be  black  or  white.)  I 
forbear  to  comment  on  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  this 
Black  Man  by  the  Whites,  in  the  Park  Street 
Meeting  House,  I  will  leave  it  in  the  dark  !  !  ! ! ! 
But  I  declare  that  the  atrocity  is  really  to  Heaven 
daring  and  infernal,  that  I  must  say  that  God  has 
commenced  a  course  of  exposition  among  the  Amer- 
icans, and  the  glorious  and  heavenly  work  will  con- 
tinue to  progress  until  they  learn  to  do  justice.^) 

Extract  from  the  Speech  of  Mr.  John  Randolph, 
of  Roanoke. 

Said  he  : — "  It  had  been  properly  observed  by  the 
"  Chairman,  as  well  as  by  the  gentleman  from  this 
"  District  (meaning  Messrs.  Clay  and  Caldwell) that 
"  there  was  nothing  in  the  proposition  submitted  to 
"  consideration  which  in  the  smallest  degree  touches 
"another  very  important  and  delicate  question, 
"  which  ought  to  be  left  as  much  out  of  view  as  possi- 
ble, (Negro  Slavery.)* 

"  There  is  no  fear,  Mr.  R.  said  that  this  proposi- 
"  tion  would  alarm  the  slave-holders  ;  they  had  been 
^'accustomed  to  think  seriously  of  the  subject. — 
"  There  was  a  popular  work  on  agriculture,  by  John 
"  Taylor  of  Carolina,  which  was  widely  circulated, 
"  and  much  confided  in,  in  Virginia.  In  that  book, 
"  much  read  because  coming  from  a  practical  man , 
"  this  description  of  people,  [referring  to  us  half 
"  free  ones]  were  pointed  out  as  a  great  evil.  They 
"  had  indeed  been  held  up  as  the  greater  bug-bear 
"  to  every  man  who  feels  an  inclination  to  eman- 
cipate his  slaves,  not  to  create  in  the  bosom 
"  of  his  country  so  great  a  nuisance.  If  a  place 
"could  be   provided    for   their    reception,    and    a 

*  "  Niger,"  is  a  word  derived  from  the  Latin,  which  was  used  by 
the  old  Romans,  to  designate  inanimate  beings,  which  were  black : 
such  as  soot,  pot,  wood,  house,  &c.  Alsol  animals  which  they 
considered  inferior  to  the  human  species,  as  a  black  horse,  cow, 
hog,  bird,  dog,  &c.  The  white  Americans  have  applied  this  term 
to  Africans,  by  way  of  reproach  for  our  colour,  to  aggravate  and 
heighten  our  miseries,  because  they  have  their  feet  on  our  throats. 


62  AN  APPEAL,  ETC. 

*'  mode  of  sending  them  hence,  there  were  hun- 
"  dreds,  nay  thousands  of  citizens  who  would,  by 
"  manumitting  their  slaves,  relieve  themselves  from 
"  the  cares  attendant  on  their  possession.  The 
"  great  slave-holder,  Mr.  R.  said,  was  frequently  a 
"  mere  sentry  at  his  own  door — bound  to  stay  on 
**  his  plantation  to  see  that  his  slaves  were  properly 
■"  treated,  &c.  Mr.  R.  concluded  by  saying,  that 
*"  he  had  thought  it  necessary  to  make  these  remarks 
"being  a  slave-holder  himself,  to  shew  that,  so  far 
**  from  being  connected  with  abolition  of  slavery, 
'"  the  measure  proposed  would  prove  one  of  the  great- 
"$,  est  securities  to  enable  the  master  to  keep  in  pos- 
*"  session  his  own  property." 

Here  is  a  demonstrative  proof,  of  a  plan  got  up, 
hy  a  gang  of  slave-holders  to  select  the  free  people 
of  colour  from  among  the  slaves,  that  our  more  mis- 
erable brethren  may  be  the  better  secured  in  igno- 
rance and  wretchedness,  to  work  their  farms  and 
dig  their  mines,  and  thus  go  on  enriching  the 
Christians  with  their  blood  and  groans.  What  our 
brethren  could  have  been  thinking  ubout,  who  have 
left  their  native  land  and  home  and  gone  away  to 
Africa,  I  am  unable  to  say.  This  country  is  as  much 
ours  as  it  is  the  whites,  whether  they  will  admit  it 
aiow  or  not,  they  will  see  and  believe  it  by  and  by. 
They  tell  us  about  prejudice — what  have  we  to  do 
-with  it  .1  Their  prejudices  will  be  obliged  to  fall 
like  lightning  to  the  ground,  in  succeeding  genera- 
tions ;  not,  however,  with  the  will  and  consent  of 
all  the  whites,  for  some  will  be  obliged  to  hold  on 
to  the  old  adage,  viz :  the  blacks  are  not  men,  but 
were  made  to  be  an  inheritance  to  us  and  our  chil- 
dren for  ever  !!!!!!  I  hope  the  residue  of  the  col- 
oured people,  will  stand  still  and  see  the  salvation 
of  God  and  the  miracle  which  he  will  work  for 
our  delivery  from  wretchedness  under  the  Chris- 
tians !!!!!! 

S#»  Addition.— If  any  of  us  see  fit  to  go  away, 
go  to  those  who.have  been  for  many  years,  and  are 


AW    APPEAL,    ETC.  63 

now  our  greatest  earthly  friends  and  benefactors- — 
the  English.  If  not  so,  go  to  our  brethren,  the  Hay- 
tians,  who,  according  to  their  word,  are  bound  to  pro- 
tect and  comfort  us.  The  Americans  say,  that  we 
are  ungrateful — but  I  ask  them  for  heaven's  sake, 
what  should  we  be  grateful  to  them  for — for  mur- 
dering our  fathers  and  mothers'? — Or  do  they  wish 
us  to  return  thanks  to  them  for  chaining  and  hand- 
cuffing us,  branding  us,  cramming  fire  down  our 
throats,  or  for  keeping  us  in  slavery,  and  beating  us 
nearly  or  quite  to  death  to  make  us  work  in  igno- 
rance and  miseries,  to  support  them  and  their  fami- 
lies. They  certainly  think  that  we  are  a  gang  of 
fools.  Those  among  them,  who  have  volunteered 
their  services  for  our  redemption,  though  we  are 
unable  to  compensate  them  for  their  labours,  we 
nevertheless  thank  them  from  the  bottom  of  our 
hearts,  and  have  our  eyes  steadfastly  fixed  upon 
them,  and  their  labours  of  love  for  God  and  man. — 
But  do  slave-holders  think  that  we  thank  them  for 
keeping  us  in  miseries,  and  taking  our  lives  by  the 
inches'?^ 

Before  I  proceed  further  with  this  scheme,  I  shall 
give  an  extract  from  the  letter  of  that  truly  Reve- 
rend Divine,  (Bishop  Allen,)  of  Philadelphia,  re- 
specting this  trick.  At  the  instance  of  the  editor 
of  the  Freedom's  Journal,  he  says,  *  "  Dear  Sir,  I 
have  been  for  several  years  trying  to  reconcile  my 
mind  to  the  Colonizing  of  Africans  in  Liberia,  but 
there  have  always  been,  and  there  still  remain  great 
and  insurmountable  objections  against  the  scheme. 
We  are  an  unlettered  people,  brought  up  in  igno- 
rance, not  one  in  a  hundred  can  read  or  write,  not 
one  in  a  thousand  has  a  liberal  education;  is  there 
any  fitness  for  such  to  be  sent  into  a  far  country, 
among  heathens,  to  convert  or  civilize  them,  when 
they  themselves  are  neither  civilized  or  Christian- 
ized ?  See  the  great  bulk  of  the  poor,  ignorant  Af- 
ricans in  this  country,  exposed  to  every  temptation 

*  See  Freedom's  Journal  for  Nov.  2d.  1827— vol.  1,  No.  34. 


64  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

before  them  :  all  for  the  want  of  their  morals  being 
refined  by  education  and  proper  attendance  paid 
unto  them  by  their  owners,  or  those  who  had  the 
charge  of  them.  It  is  said  by  the  Southern  slave- 
holders, that  the  more  ignorant  they  can  bring  up 
the  Africans,  the  better  slaves  they  make,  ('  go  and 
come.')  Is  there  any  fitness  for  such  people  to  be  col- 
onized in  a  far  country  to  be  their  own  rulers  1  Can 
we  not  discern  the  project  of  sending  the  free  peo- 
ple of  colour  away  from  their  country  ?  Is  it  not  for 
the  interest  of  the  slave-holders  to  select  the  free 
people  of  colour  out  of  the  different  states,  and  send 
them  to  Liberia  ?  Will  it  not  make  their  slaves  un- 
easy to  see  free  men  of  colour  enjoying  liberty  ?  It 
is  against  the  law  in  some  of  the  Southern  States, 
that  a  person  of  colour  should  receive  an  education, 
under  a  severe  penalty.  Colonizationists  speak  of 
America  being  first  colonized ;  but  is  there  any 
comparison  between  the  two  1  America  was  colon- 
ized by  as  wise,  judicious  and  educated  men  as  the 
world  afforded.  William  Penn  did  not  want  for 
learning,  ivisdom,  or  intelligence.  If  all  the  people 
in  Europe  and  America  were  as  ignorant  and  in  the 
same  situation  as  our  brethren,  what  would  become 
of  the  world  1  Where  would  be  the  principle  or 
piety  that  would  govern  the  people  1  We  were 
stolen  from  our  mother  country,  and  brought  here. 
We  have  tilled  the  ground  and  made  fortunes  for 
thousands,  and  still  they  are  not  weary  of  our  ser- 
vices. But  they  who  stay  to  till  the  ground  must  be 
slaves.  Is  there  not  land  enough  in  America,  or 
*  corn  enough  in  Egypt  V  Why  should  they  send 
us  into  a  far  country  to  die  ?  See  the  thousands  of 
foreigners  emigrating  to  America  every  year  :  and 
if  there  be  ground  sufficient  for  them  to  cultivate, 
and  bread  for  them  to  eat,  why  would  they  wish  to 
send  the  first  tillers  of  the  land  away  *?  Africans 
have  made  fortunes  for  thousands,  who  are  yet  un- 
willing to  part  with  their  services  ;  but  the  free 
must  be  sent  away,  and  those  who  remain,  must  be 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  65 

slaves.  I  have  no  doubt  that  there  are  many  good 
men  who  do  not  see  as  I  do,  and  who  are  for  send- 
ing us  to  Liberia ;  but  they  have  not  duly  consid- 
ered the  subject — they  are  not  men  of  colouri — 
This  land  which  we  have  watered  with  our  tears 
and  our  blood,  is  now  our  mother  country,  and  we 
are  well  satisfied  to  stay  where  wisdom  abounds  and 
the  gospel  is  free." 

"RICHARD  ALLEN, 
"  Bishop  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 
"  Church  in  the  United  States." 

I  have  given  you,  my  brethren,  an  extract  verba- 
tim, from  the  letter  of  that  godly  man,  as  you  may 
find  it  on  the  aforementioned  page  of  Freedom's 
Journal.  I  know  that  thousands,  and  perhaps  millions 
of  my  brethren  in  these  States,  have  never  heard 
of  such  a  man  as  Bishop  Allen —  a  man  whom  God 
many  years  ago  raised  up  among  his  ignorant  and 
degraded  brethren,  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  and  him 
crucified  to  them — who  notwithstanding,  had  to 
wrestle  against  principalities  and  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness to  diffuse  that  gospel  with  which  he  was  en- 
dowed among  his  brethren — but  who  having  over- 
come the  combined  powers  of  devils  and  wicked 
men,  has  under  God  planted  a  Church  among  us 
which  will  be  as  durable  as  the  foundation  of  the 
earth  on  which  it  stands.  Richard  Allen  !  O  my 
God  !  !  The  bare  recollection  of  the  labours  of  this 
man,  and  his  ministers  among  his  deplorably  wretch- 
ed brethren,  (rendered  so  by  the  whites)  to  bring 
them  to  a  knowledge  of  the  God  of  Heaven,  fills  my 
soul  with  all  those  very  high  emotions  which  would 
take  the  pen  of  an  Addison  to  portray.  It  is  im- 
possible my  brethren  for  me  to  say  much  in  this 
work  respecting  that  man  of  God.  When  the  Lord 
shall  raise  up  coloured  historians  in  succeeding  gen- 
erations, to  present  the  crimes  of  this  nation,  to  the 
then  gazing  world,  the  Holy  Ghost  will  make  them 
do  justice  to  the  name  of  Bishop  Allen,  of  Philadel- 


6(>  AN    APPEAL,  EGT. 

phia.  Suffice  it  for  me  to  say,  that  the  name  of  this 
very  man  (Richard  Allen)  though  now  in  obscuri- 
ty and  degradation,  will  notwithstanding,  stand  on 
the  pages  of  history  among  the  greatest  divines  who 
have  lived  since  the  apostolic  age,  and  among  the 
Africans,  Bishop  Allen's  will  be  entirely  pre-emi- 
nent. My  brethren,  search  after  the  character  and 
exploits  of  this  godly  man  among  his  ignorant  and 
miserable  brethren,  to  bring  them  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  our  Master.  Consider  upon 
the  tyrants  and  false  Christians  against  whom  he 
had  to  contend  in  order  to  get  access  to  his  breth- 
ren. See  him  and  his  ministers  in  the  States  of. 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware 
and  Maryland,  carrying  the  gladsome  tidings  of  free 
and  full  salvation  to  the  coloured  people.  Tyrants 
and  false  Christians  however,  would  not  allow  him  to 
penetrate  far  into  the  South,  for  fear  that  he  would 
awaken  some  of  his  ignorant  brethren,  whom  they 
held  in  wretchedness  and  misery — for  fear,  I  say  it, 
that  he  would  awaken  and  bring  them  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  their  Maker.  O  my  Master  !  my  Master  I 
I  cannot  but  think  upon  Christian  Americans  ! !  ! — 
What  kind  of  people  can  they  be  1  Will  not  those 
who  were  burnt  up  in  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  rise 
up  in  judgment  against  Christian  Americans  with 
the  Bible  in  their  hands,  and  condemn  them?  Will 
not  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  Jerusalem,  who 
had  nothing  but  the  laws  of  Moses  and  the  Prophets 
to  go  by,  rise  up  in  judgment  against  Christian 
Americans,  and  condemn  them,*  who,  in  addition  to 
these  have  a  revelation  from  Jesus  Christ  the  Son 
of  the  living  God?  In  fine,  will  not  the  Antidelu- 
vians,  together  with  the  whole  heathen  world  of  an- 
tiquity, rise  up  in  judgment  against  Christian  Amer- 
icans and  condemn  them  ?  The  Christians  of  Eu- 
rope and  America  go  to  Africa,  bring  us  away,  and 

*  I  mean  those  whose  labours  for  the  good,  or  rather  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  and  the  Jews.  Ceased  before  our  Lord  entered  the 
.Temple,  and  overturned  the  tables  of  the  Money  Changers. 


AIT   APPEAL,   ETC.  67 

throw  us  into  the  seas,  and  in  other  ways  murder 
us,  as  they  would  wild  beast.  The  Antideluvians 
and  heathens  never  dreamed  of  such  barbarities. — 
Now  the  Christians  believe,  because  they  have  a 
name  to  live,  while  they  are  dead,  that  God  will 
■overlook  sueh  things.  But  if  he  does  not  deceive 
them,  it  will  be  because  he  has  overlooked  it  sure 
enough.  But  to  return  to  this  godly  man,  Bishop 
Allen.  I  do  hereby  openly  affirm  it  to  the  world, 
that  he  has  done  more  in  a  spiritual  sense  for  his  ig- 
norant and  wretched  brethren  than  any  other  man 
of  colour  has,  since  the  world  began.  And  as  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  whites,  it  has  hitherto  been 
their  greatest  object  and  glory  to  keep  us  ignorant 
of  our  Maker,  so  as  to  make  us  believe  that  we  were 
made  to  be  slaves  to  them  and  their  children,  to  dig 
up  gold  and  silver  for  them.  It  is  notorious  that 
not  a  few  professing  Christians  among  the  whites, 
who  profess  to  love  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  have  assailed  this  man  and  laid  all  the  obsta^ 
eles  in  his  way  they  possibly  could,  consistent  with 
their  profession — and  what  for  7  WhVj  their  course 
of  proceeding  and  his,  clashed  exactly  together — 
they  trying  their  best  to  keep  us  ignorant,  that  we 
might  be  the  better  and  more  obedient  slaves — 
while  he,  on  the  other  hand,  doing  his  very  best  to 
enlighten  us  and  teach  us  a  knowledge  of  the  Lord. 
And  I  am  sorry  that  I  have  it  to  «ay,  that  many  of 
our  brethren  have  joined  in  with  our  oppressors, 
whose  dearest  objects  are  only  to  keep  us  ignorant 
and  miserable  against  this  man  to  stay  his  hand. — 
However,  they  have  kept  us  in  so  much  ignorance, 
that  many  of  us  know  no  better  than  to  fight  against 
ourselves,  and  by  that  means  strengthen  the  hands 
of  our  natural  enemies,  to  rivet  their  infernal  chains 
of  slavery  upon  us  and  our  children.  I  have  sever- 
al times  called  the  white  Americans  our  natural  en? 
emies — I  shall  here  define  my  meaning  of  the  phrase,. 
Shem,  Ham  and  Japheth,  together  with  their  father 
Noah  and  wives,  I  believe  were  not  natural  ene> 


68  AN   APPEAL,    ETC. 

mies  to  each  other.  When  the  ark  rested  after  the 
flood  upon, Mount  Arrarat,  in  iksia,  they  (eight) 
were  all  the  people  which  could  be  found  alive  in 
all  the  earth — in  fact  if  Scriptures  be  true,  (which 
I  believe  are)  there  were  no  other  living  men  in 
all  the  earth,  notwithstanding  some  ignorant  crea- 
tures hesitate  not  to  tell  us  that  we,  (the  blacks)  are 
the  s.eed  of  Cain  the  murderer  of  his  brother  Abel. 
But  where  or  of  whom  those  ignorant  and  avaricious 
wretches  could  have  got  their  information,  I  am  un- 
able to  declare.  Did  they  receive  it  from  the  Bi- 
ble ?  I  have  searched  the  Bible  as  well  as  they,  if 
I  am  not  as  well  learned  as  they  are,  and  have  never 
seen  a  verse  which  testifies  whether  we  are  the  seed 
of  Cain  or  of  Abel.  Yet  those  men  tell  us  that  we 
are  the  seed  of  Cain,  and  that  God  put  a  dark  stain 
upon  us,  that  we  might  be  known  as  their  slaves  !  ! ! 
Now,  I  ask  those  avaricious  and  ignorant  wretches, 
who  act  more  like  the  seed  of  Cain,  by  murdering 
the  whites  or  the  blacks?  How  many  vessel  loads 
of  human  beings,  have  the  blacks  thrown  into  the 
seas?  How  many  thousand  souls  have  the  blacks 
murdered  in  cold  blood,  to  make  them  work  in 
wretchedness  and  ignorance,  to  support  them  and 
their  families?*- — However,  let  us  be  the  seed  of 
Cain,  Harry,  Dick,  or  Tom !  !  !  God  will  show  the 
whites  what  we  are,  yet.  I-  say,  from  the  begin- 
ning, I  do  not  think  that  we  were  natural  enemies 
to  each  other.  But  the  whites  having  made  us  so 
wretched,  by  subjecting  us  to  slavery,  and  having 
murdered  so  many  millions  of  us,  in  order  to  make 
us  work  for  them,  and  out  of  devilishness — and 
they  taking  our  wives,  whom  we  love  as  we  do 
ourselves — our  mothers,  who  bore  the  pains  of 
death  to  give  us  birth — our   fathers  and  dear  lit- 

*  How  many  millions  souls  of  the  human  family  have  the  blacks 
beat  nearly  to  death,  to  keep  them  from  learning  to  read  the  Word 
of  God,  and  from  writing.  And  telling  lies  about  them,  by  holding 
them  up  to  the  world  as  a  tribe  of  TALKING  APES,  void  of  IN- 
TELLECT ! ! ! ! !  incapable  of  LEARNING,  &c. 


AN   APPEAL,    ETC.  69 

tie  children,  and  ourselves,  and  strip  and  beat  us 
one  before  the  other — chain,  hand-cuff,  and  drag  us 
about  like  rattle-snakes — shoot  us  down  like  wild 
bears,  before  each  other's  faces,  to  make  us  submis- 
sive to,  and  work  to  support  them  and  their  families. 
They  (the  whites)  know  well,  if  we  are  men — and 
there  is  a  secret  monitor  in  their  hearts  which  tells 
them  we  are — they  know,  I  say,  if  we  are  men, 
and  see  them  treating  us  in  the  manner  they  do, 
that  there  can  be  nothing  in  our  hearts  but  death 
alone,  for  them  ,  notwithstanding  we  may  appear 
cheerful,  when  we  see  them  murdering  our  dear 
mothers  and  wives,  because  we  cannot  help  our- 
selves. Man,  in  all  ages  and  all  nations  of  the 
earth,  is  the  same.  Man  is  a  peculiar  creature — he 
is  the  image  of  his  God,  though  he  may  be  subject- 
ed to  the  most  wretched  condition  upon  earth,  yet 
the  spirit  and  feeling  which  constitute  the  creature, 
man,  can  never  be  entirely  erased  from  his  breast, 
because  the  God  who  made  him  after  his  own  image, 
planted  it  in  his  heart ;  he  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  The 
whites  knowing  this,  they  do  not  know  what  to  do ; 
they  know  that  they  have  done  us  so  much  injury, 
they  are  afraid  that  we,  being  men,  and  not  brutes, 
will  retaliate,  and  woe  will  be  to  them  ;  there- 
fore, that  dreadful  fear,  together  with  an  avaricious 
spirit,  and  the  natural  love  in  them,"to  be  called 
masters,  (which  term  will  yet  honour  them  with 
to  their  sorrow)  bring  them  to  the  resolve  that  they 
will  keep  us  in  ignorance  and  wretchedness,  as  long 
as  they  possibly  can,*  and  make  the  best  of  their 


*  And  still  hold  us  up  with  indignity  as  being  incapable  of  acquir- 
ing knowledge  !  !  !  See  the  inconsistency  of  the  assertions  of  those 
wretches — they  beat  us  inhumanely,  sometimes  almost  to  death,  for 
attempting  to  inform  ourselves,  by  reading  the  Word  of  our  Maker, 
and  at  the  same  time  tell  us,  that  we  are  beings  void  of  intellect !  !  !  ! 
How  admirably  their  practices  agree  with  their  professions  in  this 
case.  Let  me  cry  shame  upon  you  Americans,  for  such  outrages 
upon  human  nature  ! ! !  If  it  were  possible  for  the  whites  always 
to  keep  us  ignorant  and  miserable,  and  make  us  work  to  enrich 
them  and  their  children,  and  insult  our  feelings  by  representing  us 


70  A]*    APPEAL,    KTC. 

time,  while  it  lasts.  Consequently  they,  themselves, 
(and  not  us)  render  themselves  our  natural  enemies, 
by  treating  us  so  cruel.  They  keep  us  miserable 
now,  and  call  us  their  property,  but  some  of  them 
will  have  enough  of  us  by  and  by — their  stomachs 
shall  run  over  with  us ;  they  want  us  for  their  slaves, 
and  shall  have  us  to  their  fill.  (We  are  all  in  the 
world  together  I  ! — I  said  above,  because  we  cannot 
help  ourselves,  (viz.  we  cannot  help  the  whites 
murdering  our  mothers  and  our  wives)  but  this  state- 
ment is  incorrect — for  we  can  help  ourselves ;  for, 
if  we  lay  aside  abject  servility,  and  be  determined 
to  act  like  men,  and  not  brutes — the  murders  among 
the  whites  would  be  afraid  to  show  their  cruel  heads. 
But  O,  my  God  ! — in  sorrow  I  must  say  it,  that  my 
colour,  all  over  the  world,  have  a  mean,  servile 
spirit.  They  yield  in  a  moment  to  the  whites,  let 
them  be  right  or  wrong — -the  reason  they  are 
able  to  keep  their  feet  on  our  throats.  Oh  !  my 
coloured  brethren,  all  over  the  world,  when  shall 
we  arise  from  this  death-like  apathy  ?-And  be  men  ! ! 
You  will  notice,  if  ever  we  become  men,  I  mean 
respectable  men,  such  as  other  people  are,)  we  must 
exert  ourselves  to  the  full.  For  remember,  that  it 
is  the  greatest  desire  and  object  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  whites,  to  keep  us  ignorant,  and  make  us  work 
to  support  them  and  their  families. — Here  now,  in 
the  Southern  and  Western  sections  of  this  country, 
there  are  at  least  three  coloured  persons  for  one 
white,  why  is  it,  that  those  few  weak,  good-for-noth- 
ing whites,  are  able  to  keep  so  many  able  men,  one 
of  whom,  can  put  to  flight  a  dozen  whites,  in  wretch- 
edness and  misery?  It  shows  at  once,  what  the 
blacks  are,  we  are  ignorant,  abject,  servile  and 
mean — ami  the  whites  know  it— they  know  that  we 


acs  talking  Apes,  what  would  they  do  ?  But  glory,  honour  and 
praise  to  Heaven's  King,  that  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Africa, 
will,  in  spite  of  all  the  opposition  of  their  enemies,  stand  forth  in  all 
the  dignity  and  glory  that  is  granted  by  the  Lord  to   his  creature 

fflan.. 


AH   APPEAL,   JJTC.  71 

are  too  servile  to  assert  our  rights  as  men — or  they 
would  not  fool  with  us  as  they  do.  Would  they  fool 
with  any  other  people  as  they  do  with  us  ]  No, 
they  know  too  well,  that  they  would  get  themselves 
ruined.  Why  do  they  not  bring  the  inhabitants  of 
Asia  to  be  body  servants  to  them  ?  They  know 
they  would  get  their  bodies  rent  and  torn  from  head 
to  foot.  Why  do  they  not  get  the  Aborigines  of  this 
country  to  be  slaves  to  them  and  their  children,  to 
work  their  farms  and  dig  their  mines  1  They  know 
well  that  the  Aborigines  of  this  country,  or  (Indians) 
would  tear  them  from  the  earth.  The  Indians  would 
not  rest  day  or  night,  they  would  be  up  all  times  of 
night,  cutting  their  cruel  throats.  But  my  colour, 
(some,  not  all,)  are  willing  to  stand  still  and  be  mur- 
dered by  the  cruel  whites.  In  some  of  the  West- 
India  Islands,  and  over  a  large  part  of  South  Ameri- 
ca, there  are  six  or  eight  coloured  persons  for  one 
white.*     Why  do  they  not  take  possession  of  those 

*  For  instance  in  the  two  States  of  Georgia,  and  South  Carolina, 
there  are,  perhaps,  not  much  short  of  six  or  seven  hundred  thousand 
persons  of  colour ;  and  if  I  was  a  gambling  character,  I  would 
not  be  afraid  to  stake  down  upon  the  board  Five  Cents  against 
Ten,  that  there  are  in  the  single  State  of  Virginia,  five  or  six  hun- 
dred thousand  Coloured  persons.  Four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
of  whom  (let  them  be  well  equipt  for  war)  I  would  put  against  eve- 
ry white  person  on  the  whole  continent  of  America.  (Why  ?  why 
because  I  know  that  the  Blacks,  once  they  get  involved  in  a  war, 
had  rather  die  than  to  live,  they  either  kill  or  be  killed.)  The 
whites  know  this  too,  which  make  them  quake  and  tremble.  To 
show  the  world  further,  how  servile  the  coloured  people  are,  I  will 
only  hold  Op  to  view,  the  one  Island  of  Jamaica,  as  a  specimen  of 
our  meanness. 

In  that  Island,  there  are  three  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls 
— of  whom  fifteen  thousand  are  whites,  the  remainder,  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  thousand  are  coloured  people !  and  this  Island  is 
ruled  by  the  white  people  !!!!!!!!  (15,000)  ruling  and  tyraniz- 
ing  over  335,000  persons !!!!!!!  ! — O  !  coloured  men  !  !  O  !  col- 
oured men  !  !  !  O !  coloured  men !  !  !  !  Look  !  !  look ! ! !  at  this ! ! !! 
and,  tell  me  if  we  are  not  abject  and  servile  enough,  how  long,  O  I 
how  long  my  colour  shall  we  be  dupes  and  dogs  to  the  eruel 
whites  ? — I  only  passed  Jamaica,  and  its  inhabitants,  in  review  as  a 
specimen  to  show  the  world,  the  condition  of  the  Blacks  at  this  time,, 
now  coloured  people  of  the  whole-  world,  I  beg  you  to  look  at  the 


72  AN   APPEAL,    ETC. 

places  ?  Who  hinders  them  1  It  is  not  the  avaric- 
ious whites — for  they  are  too  busily  engaged  in  lay- 
ing up  money — derived  from  the  blood  and  tears  of 
the  blacks.  The  fact  is,  they  are  too  servile,  they 
love  to  have  Masters  too  well !  !  Some  of  our 
brethren,  too,  who  seeking  more  after  self  aggran- 
disement, than  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  welfare  of 
their  brethren,  join  in  with  our  oppressors,  to  ridi- 
cule and  say  all  manner  of  evils  falsely  against  our 
Bishop.  They  think,  that  they  are  doing  great 
things,  when  they  can  get  in  company  with  the 
whites,  to  ridicule  and  make  sport  of  those  who  are 
labouring  for  their  good.  Poor  ignorant  creatures, 
they  do  not  know  that  the  sole  aim  and  object  of 
the  whites,  are  only  to  make  fools  and  slaves  of  them, 
and  put  the  whip  to  them,  and  make  them  work  to 
support  them  and  their  families.  But  I  do  say,  that 
no  man,  can  well  be  a  despiser  of  Bishop  Allen,  for 
his  public  labours  among  us,  unless  he  is  a  despiser 
of  God  and  of  Righteousness.  Thus,  we  see,  my 
brethren,  the  two  very  opposite  positions  of  those 
great  men,  who  have  written  respecting  this  "  Colo- 
nizing Plan."  fMr.  Clay  and  his  slave-holding 
party, J  men  who  are  resolved  to  keep  us  in  eternal 
wretchedness,  are  also  bent  upon  sending  us  to  Li- 
beria. While  the  Reverend  Bishop  Allen,  and  his 
party,  men  who  have  the  fear  of  God,  and  the  well- 
fare  of  their  brethren  at  heart.  The  Bishop,  in  par- 
ticular, whose  labours  for  the  salvation  of  his  breth- 
ren, are  well  known  to  a  large  part  of  those,  who 
dwell  in  the  United  States,  are  completely  opposed 
to  the  plan — and  advise  us  to  stay  where  we  are. 

(15000  white,)  and  (Three  Hundred  and  Thirty-five  Thous- 
and coloured  people)  in  that  Island,  and  tell  me  how  can  the  white 
tyrants  of  the  world  but  say  that  we  are  not  men,  but  were  made  to 
be  slaves  and  Dogs  to  them  and  their  children  forever  !!!!!!  ! — why 
my  friends  only  look  at  the  thing  !!!!  (15000)  whites  keeping  in 
wretchedness  and  degradation  (335000)  viz.  22  coloured  persons 
for  one  white  !!!!!!!!)  when  at  the  same  time,  an  equal  mumber 
(15000)  Blacks,  would  almost  take  the  whole  of  South  America, 
because  where  they  go  as  soldiers  to  fight  death  follows  in  their  train. 


Alt   APJMUA,   ETC.  73 

Now  we  have  to  determine  whose  advice  we  will 
take  respecting  this  all  important  matter,  whether 
we  will  adhere  to  Mr.  Clay  and  his  slave  holding 
party,  who  have  always  been  our  oppressors  and 
murderers,  and  who  are  for  colonizing  us,  more 
through  apprehension  than  humanity,  or  to  this  god- 
ly man  who  has  done  so  much  for  our  benefit,  to- 
gether with  the  advice  of  all  the  good  and  wise  a- 

mong  us  and  &  £$**  Wm  ^  °f.us  k™£f 
homes  and  go  to  Africa  1  I  hope  not.  *^,  —  v«* 
commence  their  attack  upon  us  as  they  did  on 
our  brethren  in  Ohio,  driving  and  beating  us  from 
our  country,  and  my  soul  for  theirs,  they  will  have 
enough  of  it.  Let  no  man  of  us  budge  one  step, 
and  let  slave-holders  come  to  beat  us  from  our 
country.  America  is  more  our  country,  than  it  is 
the  whites — we  have  enriched  it  with  our  blood  and 
tears.  The  greatest  riches  in  all  America  have  a- 
risen  from  our  blood  and  tears : — and  will  they  drive 
us  from  our  property  and  homes,  which  we  have 
earned  with  our  blood?  They  must  look  sharp  or 
this  very  thing  will  bring  swift  destruction  upon 
them.  The  Americans  have  got  so  fat  on  our 
blood  and  groans,  that  they  have  almost  forgotten 
the  God  of  armies.     But  let  them  go  on. 

$^»  Addition. — I  will  give  here  a  very  imperfect 
list  of  the  cruelties  inflicted  on  us  by  the  enlighten- 
ed Christians  of  America. — First,  no  trifling  portion 
of  them  will  beat  us  nearly  to  death,  if  they  find  us 
on  our  knees  praying  to  God, — They  hinder  us 
from  going  to  hear  the  word  of  God — they  keep  us 
sunk  in  ignorance,  and  will  not  let  us  learn  to  read 
the  word  of  God,  nor  write — If  they  find  us  with  a 
book  of  any  description  in  our  hand,  they  will  beat 
us  nearly  to  death- — they  are  so  afraid  we  will  learn 
to  read,  and  enlighten  our  dark  and  benighted  minds 

♦Those  who  are  ignorant  enough  to  go  to  Africa,  the  coloured 
people  ought  to  be  glad  to  have  them  go,  for  if  they  are  ignorant 
enough  to  let  the  whites  fool  them  off  to  Africa,  they  would  be  no 
aaiall  injury  to  us  if  they  reside  in  this  country. 

10 


74  AN    APPEAL,    ETC. 

— They  will  not  suffer  us  to  meet  together  to  wor- 
ship the  God  who  made  us — they  brand  us  with  hot 
iron — they  cram  bolts  of  fire  down  our  throats — 
they  cut  us  as  they  do  horses,  bulls,  or  hogs — they 
crop  our  ears  and  sometimes  cut  off  bits  of  our 
tongues — they  chain  and  hand-cuff  us,  and  while  in 
that  miserable  and  wretched  condition,  beat  us  with 
cow-hides  and  clubs — they  keep  us  half  naked  and 
starve  us  sothetimes  nearly  to  death  under  their  in- 
fernal whips  or  lashes  (which  some  of  them  shall 
have  enough  of  yet) — They  put  on  us  fifty -sixes 
and  chains,  and  make  us  work  in  that  cruel  situa- 
tion, and  in  sickness,  under  lashes  to  support  them 
and  their  families. — They  keep  us  three  or  four 
hundred  feet  under  ground  working  in  their  mines, 
night  and  day  to  dig  up  gold  and  silver  to  enrich 
them  and  their  children. — They  keep  us  in  the 
most  death-like  ignorance  by  keeping  us  from  all 
source  of  information,  and  call  us,  who  are  free  men 
and  next  to  the  Angels  of  God,  their  property  !!!!!! 
They  make  us  fight  and  murder  each  other,  many 
of  us  being  ignorant,  not  knowing  any  better. — 
They  take  us,  (being  ignorant,)  and  put  us  as  drivers 
one  over  the  other,  and  make  us  afflict  each  other 
as  bad  as  they  themselves  afflict  us — and  to  crown 
the  whole  of  this  catalogue  of  cruelties,  they  tell  us 
that  we  the  (blacks)  are  an  inferior  race  of  beings  ! 
incapable  of  self  government !  ! — We  would  be  in- 
jurious to  society  and  ourselves,  if  tyrants  should 
loose  their  unjust  hold  on  us!! !  That  if  we  were 
free  we  would  not  work,  but  would  live  on  plunder 
or  theft !  !  !  !  that  we  are  the  meanest  and  laziest 
set  of  beings  in  the  world  !  !  !  ! !  That  they  are  obli- 
ged to  keep  us  in  bondage  to  do  us  good  !  !  !  !  !  ! — 
That  we  are  satisfied  to  rest  in  slavery  to  them  and 
their  children  ! !  ! ! !  ! — That  we  ought  not  to  be  set 
free  in  America,  but  ought  to  be  sent  away  to  Af- 
rica !!!!!!!  ! — That  if  we  were  set  free  in  Ameri- 
ca, we  would  involve  the  country  in  a  civil  war, 
which  assertion  is  altogether  at  variance  with  our 


AW    APPEAL,    KTC.  75 

feeling  or  design,  for  we  ask  them  for  nothing  but 
the  rights  of  man,  viz.  for  them  to  set  us  free,  and 
treat  us  like  men,  and  there  will  be  no  danger,  for 
we  will  love  and  respect  them,  and  protect  our 
country — but  cannot  conscientiously  do  these  things 
until  they  treat  us  like  men.  ^$ 

How  cunning  slave-holders  think  they  are  !  !  ! — 
How  much  like  the  king  of  Egyptwho,  after  he  saw 
plainly  that  God  was  determined  to  bring  out  his 
people,  in  spite  of  him  and  his,  as  powerful  as 
they  were.  He  was  willing  that  Moses,  Aaron  and 
the  Elders  of  Israel,  but  not  all  the  people  should  go 
and  serve  the  Lord.  But  God  deceived  hjm  as  he 
will  Christian  Americans,  unless  they  are  very  cau-r 
tious  how  they  move.  What  would  have  become  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  was  it  not  for  those 
among  the  whites,  who  not  in  words  barely,  but 
in  truth  and  in  deed,  love  and  fear  the  Lord  ? — 
Our  Lord  and  Master  said : — f  "  Whoso  shall  of*- 
"  fend  one  of  these  little  ones  which  believe  in  me, 
"  it  were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hang- 
"  ed  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were. drowned  in 
"  the  depth  of  the  sea."  But  the  Americans  with 
this  very  threatening  of  the  Lord's,  not  only  beat 
his  little  ones  among  the  Africans,  but  many  of  them 
they  put  to  death  or  murder.  Now  the  avaricious 
Americans,  think  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  will 
let  them  off,  because  his  words  are  no  more  than 
the  words  of  a  man  ! ! !  In  fact,  many  of  them  are 
so  avaricious  and  ignorant,  that  they  do  not  believe 
in  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Tyrants 
may  think  they  are  so  skilJ&il  in  State  affairs  is  the 
reason  that  the  government  is  ^preserved.  But  I 
tell  you,  that  this  country  would  have  been  given 
up  long  ago,  was  it  not  for  the  lovers  of  the  Lord. 
They  are  indeed,  the  salt  of  the  *earth.  Remove 
the  people  of  God  among  the  whites,  from  this  land 
of  blood,  and  it  will  stand  until  they  cleverly  get  out 
of  the  way. 

*  See  St.  Mattfeew's  Gospel,  chap.  yviii.  6. 


76  AX   APPEAL,    KTC. 

I  adopt  the  language  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  S.  E.  Cor- 
nish, of  New  York,  editor  of  the  Rights  of  All,  and 
say  :  "  Any  coloured  man  of  common  intelligence, 
"  who  gives  his  countenance  and  influence  to  that 
"  colony,  further  than  its  missionary  object  and  in- 
"  interest  extend,  should  be  considered  as  a  traitor 
"  to  his  brethren,  and  discarded  by  every  respecta- 
"  ble  man  of  colour.  And  every  member  of  that 
"  society,  however  pure  his  motive,  whatever  may 
"  be  his  religious  character  and  moral  worth,  should  . 
"  in  his  efforts  to  remove  the  coloured  population 
"  from  their  rightful  soil,  the  land  of  their  birth  and 
"  nativity,  be  considered  as  acting  gratuitously  un- 
"  righteous  and  cruel." 

Let  me  make  an  appeal  brethren,  to  your  hearts, 
for  your  cordial  co-operation  in  the  circulation  of 
"  The  Rights  of  All,"  among  us.  The  utility  of 
such  a  vehicle  if  rightly  conducted,  cannot  be  esti- 
mated. I  hope  that  the  well  informed  among  us, 
may  see  the  absolute  necessity  of  their  co-operation 
in  its  universal  spread  among  us.  If  we  should  let 
it  go  down,  never  let  us  undertake  any  thing  of  the 
kind  again,  but  give  up  at  once  and  say  that  we  are 
really  so  ignorant  and  wretched  that  we  cannot  do 
any  thing  at  all ! ! — As  far  as  I  have  seen  the  writ- 
ings of  its  editor,  I  believe  he  is  not  seeking  to  fill 
his  pockets  with  money,  but  has  the  welfare  of  his 
brethren  truly  at  heart.  Such  men,  brethren,  ought 
to  be  supported  by  us. 

But  to  return  to  the  colonizing  trick.  It  will  be 
well  for  me  to  notice  here  at  once,  that  I  do  not 
mean  indiscriminately  to  condemn  all  the  members 
and  advocates  of  this  scheme,  for  I  believe  that  there 
are  some  friends  to  the  sons  of  Africa,  who  are  labor- 
ing for  our  salvation,  not  in  words  only  but  in  truth 
and  in  deed,  who  have  been  drawn  into  this  plan. — 
Some,  more  by  persuasion  than  any  thing  else  ; 
while  others,  with  humane  feelings  and  lively  zeal 
for  our  good,  seeing  how  much  we  suffer  from  the 
afflictions  poured  upon  us  by  unmerciful  tyrants, 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  77 

are  willing  to  enroll  their  names  in  any  thing  which 
they  think  has  for  its  ultimate  end  our  redemption 
from  wretchedness  and  miseries  ;  such  men,  with  a 
heart  truly  overflowing  with  gratitude  for  their  past 
services  and  zeal  in  our  cause,  I  humbly  beg  to  ex- 
amine this  plot  minutely,  and  see  if  the  end  which 
they  have  in  view  will  be  completely  consummated 
by  such  a  course  of  procedure.  Our  friends  who 
have  been  imperceptibly  drawn  into  this  plot  I  view 
with  tenderness,  and  would  not  for  the  world  injure 
their  feelings,  and  I  have  only  to  hope  for  the  fu- 
ture, that  they  will  withdraw  themselves  from  it ; — 
for  I  declare  to  them,  that  the  plot  is  not  for  the  glo- 
ry of  God,  but  on  the  contrary  the  perpetuation  of 
slavery  in  this  country,  which  will  ruin  them  and 
the  country  forever,  unless  something  is  immediate- 
ly done. 

Do  the  colonizationists  think  to  send  us  off  with- 
out first  being  reconciled  to  us  ?  Do  they  think  to 
bundle  us  up  like  brutes  and  send  us  off,  as  they  did 
our  brethren  of  the  State  of  Ohio  ?*  Have  they  not 
to  be  reconciled  to  us,  or  reconcile  us  to  them,  for  the 
cruelties  with  which  they  have  afflicted  our  fathers 
and  us?  Methinks  colonizationists  think  they  have 
a  set  of  brutes  to  deal  with,  sure  enough.  Do  they 
think  to  drive  us  from  our  country  and  homes,  after 
having  enriched  it  with  our  blood  and  tears,  and 
keep  back  millions  of  our  dear  brethren,  sunk  in  the 
most  barbarous  wretchedness,  to  dig  up  gold  and 
silver  for  them  and  their  children  ?  Surely,  the 
Americans  must  think  that  we  are  brutes,  as  some 

*  The  great  slave  holder,  Mr.  John  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  inti- 
mated in  one  of  his  great,  happy  and  eloquent  Harrangoes,  before 
the  Virginia  Convention,  that  Ohio  is  a  slave  State,  by  ranking  it 
among  other  Slave-holding  States.  This  probably  was  done  by  the 
Honorable  Slave-holder  to  deter  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  ;  to 
such  I  would  say,  that  Ohio  always  was  and  is  now  a  free  State, 
that  it  never  was  and  I  do  not  believe  it  ever  will  be  a  Slave-holding 
State ;  the  people  I  believe,  though  some  of  them  are  hard  hearted 
enough,  detest  Slavery  too  much  to  admit  an  evil  into  their  bosom, 
which  gnaws  into  the  very  vitals,  and  sinews  of  those  who  are  now 
in  possession  of  it. 


78  AW  APPEAL,  ETC. 

of  them  have  represented  us  to  be.  They  think  that 
we  do  not  feel  for  our  brethren,  whom  they  are  mur- 
dering by  the  inches,  but  they  are  dreadfully  de- 
ceived. I  acknowledge  that  there  are  some  deceit- 
ful and  hypocritical  wretches  among  us,  who  will 
tell  us  one  thing  while  they  mean  another,  and  thus 
they  go  on  aiding  our  enemies  to  oppress  themselves 
and  us.  But  I  declare  this  day  before  my  Lord  and 
Master,  that  I  believe  there  are  some  true-hearted 
sons  of  Africa,  in  this  land  of  oppression,  but  pre- 
tended liberty  !  !  !  !  ! — who  do  in  reality  feel  for  their 
suffering  brethren,  who  are  held  in  bondage  by  ty- 
rants. Some  of  the  advocates  of  this  cunningly  de- 
vised plot  of  Satan  represent  us  to  be  the  greatest 
set  of  cut-throats  in  the  world,  as  though  God  wants 
us  to  take  his  work  out  of  his  hand  before  he  is  ready. 
Does  not  vengeance  belong  to  the  Lord  1  Is  he 
not  able  to  repay  the  Americans  for  their  cruelties, 
with  which  they  have  afflicted  Africa's  sons  and 
daughters,  without  our  interference,  unless  we  are 
ordered  1  It  is  surprising  to  think  that  the  Ameri- 
cans, having  the  Bible  in  their  hands,  do  not  believe 
it.  Are  not  the  hearts  of  all  men  in  the  hands  of 
the  God  of  battles  ?  And  does  he  not  suffer  some, 
in  consequence  of  cruelties,  to  go  on  until  they  are 
irrecoverably  lost  1  Now,  what  can  be  more  aggra- 
vating, than  for  the  Americans,  after  having  treated 
us  so  bad,  to  hold  us  up  to  the  world  as  such  great 
throat -cutters'?  It  appears  to  me  as  though  they 
.are  resolved  to  assail  us  with  every  species  of  afflic- 
tion that  their  ingenuity  can  invent.  #5=  See  the 
^African  Repository  and  Colonial  Journal,  from  its 
commencement  to  the  present  day — see  how  we  are 
through  the  medium  of  that  periodical,  abused  and 
held  up  by  the  Americans,  as  the  greatest  nuisance 
to  society,  and  throat-cutters  in  the  world.J  But  the 
Lord  sees  their  actions.  Americans !  notwithstand- 
ing you  have  and  do  continue  to  treat  us  more  cruel 
than  any  heathen  nation  ever  did  a  people  it  had  sub- 
jected to  the  same  condition  that  you  have  us.     Now 


AN  APPEAL,    ETC.  79 

let  us  reason — I  mean  you  of  the  United  States, 
whom  I  believe  God  designs  to  save  from  destruc- 
tion, if  you  will  hear.  For  I  declare  to  you,  whether 
you  believe  it  or  not,  that  there  are  some  on  the  con- 
tinent of  America,  who  will  never  be  able  to  repent. 
God  will  surely  destroy  them,  to  show  you  his  dis- 
approbation of  the  murders  they  and  you  have  in- 
flicted on  us.  I  say,  let  us  reason ;  had  you  not  bet- 
ter take  our  body,  while  you  have  it  in  your  power, 
and  while  we  are  yet  ignorant  and  wretched,  not 
knowing  but  a  little,  give  us  education,  and  teach 
us  the  pure  religion  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  which 
is  calculated  to  make  the  lion  lay  down  in  peace  with 
the  lamb,  and  which  millions  of  you  have  beaten  us 
nearly  to  death  for  trying  to  obtain  since  we  have 
been  among  you,  and  thus  at  once,  gain  our  affection 
while  we  are  ignorant?  Remember  Americans, 
that  we  must  and  shall  be  free  and  enlightened  as 
you  are,  will  you  wait  until  we  shall,  under  God, 
obtain  our  liberty  by  the  crushing  arm  of  power  1 
Will  it  not  be  dreadful  for  you  ?  I  speak  Ameri- 
cans for  your  good.  We  must  and  shall  be  free  I 
say,  in  spite  of  jrou.  You  may  do  your  best  to  keep 
us  in  wretchedness  and  misery,  to  enrich  you  and 
your  children,  but  God  will  deliver  us  from  under 
you.  And  wo,  wo,  will  be  to  you  if  we  have  to  ob- 
tain our  freedom  by  fighting.  Throw  away  your 
fears  and  prejudices  then,  and  enlighten  us  and  treat 
us  like  men,  and  we  will  like  you  more  than  we  do 
now  hate  you,*  and  tell  us  now  no  more  about  col- 
onization, for  America  is  as  much  our  country,  as  it 
is  yours.— Treat  us  like  men,  and  there  is  no  dan- 
ger but  we  will  all  live  in  peace  and  happiness  to- 
gether. For  we  are  not  like  you,  hard  hearted,  un- 
merciful, and  unforgiving.  What  a  happy  country 
this  will  be,  if  the  whites  will  listen.  What  nation 
under  heaven,  will  be  able  to  do  any  thing  with  us,, 
unless  God  gives  us  up  into  its  hand  ?    But  Ameri- 

*  Yon  are  not  astonished  at  my  saying  we  hate  yon,  for  if  we  are- 
men,  we  cannot  but  hate  you,  while  you  are  treating  us  like  dogs. 


SO  AN    APPEAL.,    ETC. 

cans,  I  declare  to  you,  while  you  keep  us  and  our 
children  in  bondage,  and  treat  us  like  brutes,  to 
make  us  support  you  and  your  families,  we  cannot 
be  your  friends.  You  do  not  look  for  it,  do  you  ? 
Treat  us  then  like  men,  and  we  will  be  your  friends. 
And  there  is  not  a  doubt  in  my  mind,  but  that  the 
whole  of  the  past  will  be  sunk  into  oblivion,  and 
we  yet,  under  God,  will  become  a  united  and  hap- 
py people.  The  whites  may  say  it  is  impossible, 
but  remember  that  nothing  is  impossible  with  God. 

The  Americans  may  say  or  do  as  they  please,  but 
they  have  to  raise  us  from  the  condition  of  brutes 
to  that  of  respectable  men,  and  to  make  a  national 
acknowledgement  to  us  for  the  wrongs  they  have 
inflicted  on  us.  As  unexpected,  strange,  and  wild 
as  these  propositions  may  to  some  appear,  it  is  no 
less  a  fact,  that  unless  they  are  complied  with,  the 
Americans  of  the  United  States,  though  they  may 
for  a  little  while  escape,  God  will  yet  weigh  them 
in  a  balance,  and  if  they  are  not  superior  to  other 
men,  as  they  have  represented  themselves  to  be,  he 
will  give  them  wretchedness  to  their  very  heart's 
content. 

And  now  brethren,  having  concluded  these  four 
Articles,  I  submit  them,  together  with  my  Preamble, 
dedicated  to  the  Lord,  for  your  inspection,  in  lan- 
guage so  very  simple,  that  the  most  ignorant,  who 
can  read  at  all,  may  easily  understand — of  which 
you  may  make  the  best  you  possibly  can.*     Should 

*  Some  of  my  brethren,  who  are  sensible,  do  not  take  an  interest 
in  enlightening  the  minds  of  our  more  ignorant  brethren  respecting 
this  Book,  and  in  reading  it  to  them,  just  as  though  they  will  not 
have  either  to  stand  or  fall  by  what  is  written  in  this  book.  Do  they 
believe  that  I  would  be  so  foolish  as  to  put  out  a  book  of  this  kind 
without  strict — ah !  very  strict  commandments  of  the  Lord  ? — Sure- 
ly the  blacks  and  whites  must  think  that  I  am  ignorant  enough. — 
Do  they  fhink  that  I  would  have  the  audacious  wickedness  to  take 
the  name  of  my  God  in  vain  ? 

Notice-,  I  said  in  the  concluding  clause  of  Article  3 — I  call  God, 
I  call  Angels,  I  call  men  to  witness,  that  the  destruction  of  the 
Americans  is  at  hand,  and  will  be  speedily  consummated  unless  they 
repent.     Now  I  wonder  if  the  world  think  that  I  would  take  the 


- 

AN    APPEAL,   BTC.  81' 

tyrants  take  it  into  their  heads  to  emancipate  any  of 
you,  remember  that  your  freedom  is  your  natural 
right.  You  are  men,  as  well  as  they,  and  instead 
of  returning  thanks  to  thejn  for  your  freedom,  re- 
turn it  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  is  our  rightful  own- 
er. If  they  do  not  want  to  part  with  your  labours, 
which  have  enriched  them,  let  them  keep  you,  and 
my  word  for  it,  that  God  Almighty,  will  break  their 
strong  band.  Do  you  believe  this,  my  brethren  1 — 
See  my  Address,  delivered  before  the  General  Col- 
oured Association  of  Massachusetts,  which  may  be 
found  in  Freedom's  Journal,  for  Dec.  20,  1828. — 
See  the  last  clause  of  that  Address.  Whether  you 
believe  it  or  not,  I  tell  you  that  God  will  dash  ty- 
rants, in  combination  with  devils,  into  atoms,  and 
will  bring  you  out  from  your  wretchedness  and  mis- 
eries under  these   Christian  People  /  !  !  !  !  ! 

Those  philanthropists  and  lovers  of  the  human 
family,  who  have  volunteered  their  services  for  our 
redemption  from  wretchedness,  have  a  high  claim 
on  our  gratitude,  and  we  should  always  view  them 
as  our  greatest  earthly  benefactors. 

If  any  are  anxious  to  ascertain  who  I  am,  know 
the  world,  that  I  am  one  of  the  oppressed,  degraded 
and  wretched  sons  of  Africa,  rendered  so  by  the 
avaricious  and  unmerciful,  among  the  whites. — If 
any  wish  to  plunge  me  into  the  wretched  incapaci- 
ty of  a  slave,  or  murder  me  for  the  truth,  know  ye, 
that  I  am  in  the  hand  of  God,  and  at  your  disposal. 
I  count  my  life  not  dear  unto  me,  but  I  am  ready 
to  be  offered  at  any  moment.  For  what  is  the  use 
of  living,  when  in  fact  I  am  dead.  But  remember, 
Americans,  that  as  miserable,  wretched,  degraded 
and  abject  as  you  have  made  us  in  preceding,  and 
in  this  generation,  to  support  you  and  your  families, 

name  of  Govl  in  this  way  in  vain?  What  do  they  think  I  take  God 
to  be  ?  Do  they  suppose  that  I  would  trifle  with  that  God  who  will 
not  have  his  Holy  name  taken  in  vain  ? — He  will  show  you  and  the 
world,  in  due  time,  whether  this  book  is  for  his  glory,  or  written  by 
me  through  envy  to  the  whites,  as  some  have  represented, 
11 


82 


AN    APPEAL,   KT0. 


that  some  of  you,  (whites)  on  the  continent  of  Amer- 
ica, will  yet  curse  the  day  that  you  ever  were  born. 
You  want  slaves,  and  want  us  for  your  slaves  ! ! !  My 
colour  will  yet,  root  some  .of  you  out  of  the  very 
face  of  the  earth  !!!!!!  You  may  doubt  it  if  you 
please.  I  know  that  thousands  will  doubt — they 
think  they  have  us  so  well  secured  in  wretchedness, 
to  them  and  their  children,  that  it  is  impossible  for 
such  things  to  occur.*  So  did  the  antideluvians  doubt 

*  Why  do  the  Slave-holders  or  Tyrants  of  America  and  their  advocates 
fight  so  hard  to  keep  my  brethren  from  receiving  and  reading  my  Book  of 
Appeal  to  them  ? — Is  it  because  they  treat  us  so  well? — Is  it  because  we  are 
satisfied  to  rest  in  Slavery  to  them  and  their  children? — Is  is  because  they  are 
treating  us  like  men,  by  compensating  us  all  over  this  free  country !  !  for  our 
labours  ?^-Bnt  why  are  the  Americans  so  very  fearfully  terrified  respecting 
my  Book  ? — Why  do  they  search  vessels,  &c.  when  entering  the  harbours  of 
tyrannical  States,  to  see  if  any  of  my  Books  can  be  found,  for  fear  that  my 
brethren  will  get  them  to  read.  Why,  I  thought  the  Americans  proclaimed 
to  the  world  that  they  are  a  happy,  enlightened,  humane  and  Christian  people, 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  enjoy  equal  Rights  !  !  America  fs  the  Asy- 
lum for  the  oppressed  of  all  nations  !  !  !  < 

Now  I  ask  the  Americans  to  see  the  fearful  terror  they  labor  under  for  fear 
that  my  brethren  will  get  my  Book  and  read  it — and  tell  me  if  their  declara- 
tion is  true — viz.  if  the  United  States  of  America  is  a  Republican  Govern- 
ment ? — Is  this  not  the  most  tyrannical,  unmerciful,  and  cruel  government  un- 
der Heaven — not  excepting  the  Algerines,  Turks  and  Arabs  ? — I  believe  if 
any  candid  person  would  take  the  trouble  to  go  through  the  Southern  and 
Western  sections  of  this  country,  and  could  have  the  heart  to  see  the  cruel- 
ties inflicted  by  these  Christians  on  us,  he  would  say,  that  the  Algerines, 
Turks  and  Arabs  treat  their  dogs  a  thousand  times  better  than  we  are  treated 
by  the  Christians. — But  perhaps  the  Americans  do  their  very  best  to  keep  my 
Brethren  from  receiving  and  reading  my  "  Appeal"  for  fear  they  will  find  in  it 
an  extract  which  I  made  from  their  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  says, 
"  we  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal,"  &e. 
&c.  &c. — If  the  above  are  not  the  causes  of  the  alarm  among  the  Americans, 
respecting  my  Book,  I  do  not  know  what  to  impute  it  to,  unless  they  are 
possessed  of  the  same  spirit  with  which  Demetrius  the  Silversmith  was  pos- 
sessed— however,  that  they  may  judge  whether  they  are  of  the  same  avaric- 
ious and  ungodly  spirit  with  that  man,  I  will  give  here  an  extract  from  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  chapter  xix.— verses  23,  24,  25,  26,  27. 

"  And  the  same  time  there  arose  no  small  stir  about  that  way.  For  a  cer- 
"  tain  man  named  Demetrius,  a  silversmith,  which  made  silver  shrines  for 
"  Diana,  brought  no  small  gain  unto  the  craftsmmen  ;  whom  he  called  together 
"  with  the  workmen  of  like  occupation,  and  said,  Sirs,  ye  know  that  by  this 
"  craft  we  have  our  wealth  :  moreover,  ye  see__and  hear,  that  not  alone  at 
"  Ephesus,  but  almost  throughout  all  Asia,  this  Paul  bath  persuaded  and  turn- 
"  ed  aw.iy  much  people,  saying,  that  they  be  no  gods  which  are  made  with 
"  hands  :  so  that  not  only  this  our  craft  is  in  danger  to  be  set  at  nought ;  but 
"  also  that  the  temple  of  the  great  goddess  Diana  should  be  despised,  and  her 
"  magnificence  should  be  destroyed,  whom  all  Asia  and  the  world  worship- 
"  peth." 

I  pray  you  Americans  of  North  and  South  America,  together  with  the  whole 
European  inhabitants  of  the  world,  (I  mean  Slave-holders  and  their  advocates) 
to  read  and  ponder  over  the  above  verses  in   your  minds,  and  judge  whether 
or  not    you  are  of  the  infernal  spirit  with  that  Heathen  Demetrius,  the  Silver-     ' 
emith:     In  fine  I  beg  you  to  read  the  whole  chapter  through  carefully. 


A1C   APPEAL,   ETC.  83 

Noah,  until  the  day  in  which  the  flood  came  and 
swept  them  away.  So  did  the  Sodomites  doubt, 
until  Lot  had  got  out  of  the  city,  and  God  rained 
down  fire  and  brimstone  from  Heaven  upon  them* 
and  burnt  them  up.  So  did  the  king  of  Egypt  doubt 
the  very  existence  of  a  God;  he  said,  "who  is  the 
Lord,  that  I  should  let  Israel  go  V  Did  he  not  find 
to  his  sorrow,  who  the  Lord  was,  when  he  and  all 
his  mighty  men  of  war,  were  smothered  to  death  in 
the  Red  Sea  ?  So  did  the  Romans  doubt,  many  of 
them  were  really  so  ignorant,  that  they  thought  the 
whole  of  mankind  were  made  to  be  slaves  to  them  ; 
just  as  many  of  the  Americans  think  now,  of  my 
colour.  But  they  got  dreadfully  deceived.  When 
men  got  their  eyes  opened,  they  made  the  murder- 
ers scamper.  The  way  in  which  they  cut  their  ty- 
rannical throats,  was  not  much  inferior  to  the  way 
the  Romans  or  murderers,  served  them,  when  they 
held  them  in  wretchedness  and  degradation  under 
their  feet.  So  would  Christian  Americans  doubt,  if 
God  should  send  an  Angel  from  Heaven  to  preach 
their  funeral  sermon.  The  fact  is,  the  Christians 
having  a  name  to  live,  while  they  are  dead,  think 
that  God  will  screen  them  on  that  ground- 
See  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  us  that  are 
thrown  into  the  seas  by  Christians,  and  murdered 
by  them  in  other  ways.  They  cram  us  into  their 
vessel  holds  in  chains  and  in  hand-cuffs — men,  wo- 
men and  children,  all  together  ! !  O  !  save  us,  we 
pray  thee,  thou  God  of  Heaven  and  of  earth,  from 
the  devouring  hands  of  the  white  Christians !  1 ! 

Oh  !  thou  Alpha  and  Omega  ! 
The  beginning  and  the  end, 
Enthron'd  thou  art,  in  Heaven  above, 
Surrounded  hy  An<rcls  there  : 

From  whence  thou  seest  the  miseries 
To  which  we  are  subject  ; 
The  whites  have  murder  d  us,  O  God  I 
And  kept  us  ignorant  of  thee. 


84  AIV    APPEAL,    ETC. 

Not  satisfied  with  this,  my  Lard  ! 
They  throw  us  in  the  seas  : 
Be  pleas'd,  we  pray,  for  Jesus'  sake, 
To  save  us  from  their  grasp. 

We  believe  that,  for  thy  glory's  sake, 
Thou  wilt  deliver  us  ; 
But  that  thou  may'st  effect  these  things, 
Thy  glory  must  be  sought. 

In  conclusion,  I  ask  the  candid  and  unprejudiced 
of  the  whole  world,  to  search  the  pages  of  histo- 
rians diligently,  and  see  if  the  Antideluvians — the 
Sodomites— the  Egyptians — the  Babylonians — the 
Ninevites— the  Carthagenians — the  Persians — the 
Macedonians — the  Greeks — the  Romans — the  Ma- 
hometans— the  Jews — or  devils,  ever  treated  a  set 
of  human  beings,  as  the  white  Christians  of  Ameri- 
ca do  us,  the  blacks,  or  Africans.  I  also  ask  the 
attention  of  the  world  of  mankind  to  the  declaration 
of  these  very  American  people,  of  the  United  States. 


A  declaration  made  July  4,  1776. 

It  isays,  *"  When  in  the  course  of  human  events, 
"  it  becomes  necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve 
"  the  political  bands  which  have  connected  them 
"  with  another,  and  to  assume  among  the  Powers  of 
"  the  earth,  the  separate  and  equal  station  to  which 
"the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nature's  God  entitle 
"  them.  A  decent  respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind 
*\  requires,  that  they  should  declare  the  causes  which 
"  impel  them  to  the  separation. — We  hold  these 
"  truths  to  be  self  evident — that  all  men  are  created 
"  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
"with  certain  unalienable  rights:  that  among  these, 
"  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  that, 
"  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted 
"  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the 

*  See  the  Declaration  of  Independence  of  the  United  States. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETC.  85 

"  consent  of  the  governed  ;  that  when  ever  any  form 
"  of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it 
*  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  to  abolish  it, 
"  and  to  institute  a  new  government  laying  its 
"  foundation  on  such  principles,  and  organizing  its 
"  powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most 
"  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  happiness.  Pru- 
"  dence,  indeed,  will  dictate,  that  governments  long 
"established  should  not  be  changed  for  light  and 
"transient  causes;  and  accordingly  all  experience 
"  hath  shewn,  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to 
"  suffer,  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right 
"  themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they 
"are  accustomed.  But  when  a  long  train  of  abu- 
"  ses  and  usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same 
"  Object,  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them  under  abso- 
"  lute  despotism,  it  is  their  right  it  is  their  duty  to 
"  throw  off  such  government,  and  to  provide  new 
"  guards  for  their  future  security."  See  your  Dec- 
laration Americans  !  !  !  Do  you  understand  your 
own  language?  Hear  your  language,  proclaimed 
to  the  world,  July  4th,  1776— m*  "We  hold  these 
"  truths  to  be  self  evident — that  ALL  men  are 
"  created  EQUAL  ! !  that  they  are  endowed  by 
"their  Creator  toith  certain  unalienable  rights ;  that 
"  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
"happiness!  !"  Compare  your  own  language 
above,  extracted  from  your  Declaration  Of  Inde- 
pendence, with  your  cruelties  and  murders  in- 
flicted by  your  cruel  and  unmerciful  fathers  and 
yourselves  on  our  fathers  and  on  us — men  who  have. 
never  given  your  fathers  or  you  the  least  provoca- 
tion !!!!!  t 

Hear  your  language  further!  &^»"But  when  a 
"  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpation,  pursuing 
"  invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a  design  to're- 
"duce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their 
"  right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  govern - 
"  ment,  and  to  provide  new  guards  for  their  future 
"  security." 


86  AW   APPEAL,    ETC. 

Now,  Americans  !  I  ask  you  candidly,  was  your 
sufferings  under  Great  Britain,  one  hundredth  part 
as  cruel  and  tyranical  as  you  have  rendered  ours 
under  you  ?  Some  of  you,  no  doubt,  believe  that 
we  will  never  throw  off  your  murderous  govern- 
ment and  "  provide  new  guards  for  our  future  se- 
curity/* If  Satan  has  made  you  believe  it,  will  he 
not  deceive  you  %f  Do  the  whites  say,  I  being  a 
black  man,  ought  to  be  humble,  which  I  readily 
admit  1  I  ask  them,  ought  they  not  to  be  as  humble 
as  I?  or  do  they  think  that  they  can  measure  arms 
with  Jehovah'?  Will  not  the  Lord  yet  humble 
them'?  or  will  not  these  very  coloured  people 
whom  they  now  treat  worse  than  brutes,  yet  under 
God,  humble  them  low  down  enough!  Some  of 
the  whites  are  ignorant  enough  to  tell  us,  that  we 
ought  to  be  submissive  to  them,  that  they  may  keep 
their  feet  on  our  throats.  And  if  we  do  not  submit 
to  be  beaten  to  death  by  them,  we  are  bad  creatures 
and  of  course  must  be  damned,  &c.  If  any  man 
wishes  to  hear  this  doctrine  openly  preached  to  us 
by  the  American  preachers,  let  him  go,  into  the 
Southern  and  Western  sections  of  this  country — I 
do  not  speak  from  hear  say — -what  I  have  written, 
is  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  myself.  No  man  may 
think  that  my  book  is  made  up  of  conjecture — I 
have  travelled  and  observed  nearly  the  whole  of 
those  things  myself,  and  what  little  I  did  not  get  by 
my  own  observation,  I  received  from  those  among 
the  whites  and  blacks,  in  whom  the  greatest  confi- 
dence may  be  placed. 

The  Americans  may  be  as  vigilant  as  they  please, 
but  they  cannot  be  vigilant  enough  for  the  Lord, 
neither  can  they  hide  themselves,  where  he  will 
not  find  and  bring  them  out. 


*  The  Lord  Isf]  not  taught  the  Americans  that  we  will  not  some 
day  or  other  throw  off  their  chains  and  hand-cuffs,  from  our  hands 
<am$  feet,  and  their  devilish  lashes  (which  some  of  them  shall  have 
enough  of  yet)  from  off  our  backs. 


AN    APPEAL,    ETG.  87 

1  Thy  presence  why  withdraw'*!,  Lord  1 

Why  hid'st  thou  now  thy  face, 
When  dismal  times  of  deep  distress 
Call  for  thy  wonted  grace  1 

2  The  wicked,  swell'd  with  lawless  pride, 

Have  made  the  poor  their  prey  ; 
O  let  them  fall  by  those  designs 
Which  they  for  others  lay. 


3  For  straight  they  triumph,  if 
Their  thriving  crimes  attend ; 
And  sordid  wretches,  whom  God  hates, 
Perversely  they  command. 

4.  To  own  a  pow'r  above  themselves 
Their  haughty  pride  disdains ; 
And,  therefore,  in  their  stubborn  mind 
No  thought  of  God  remains.    • 

6  Oppressive  methods  they  pursue, 
And  all  their  foes  they  slight  ; 
Because  thy  judgments,  unobserv'd, 
Are  far  above  their  sight. 

6  They  fondly  think  their  prosp'rous  state 

Shall  unmolested  be ; 
They  think  their  vain  designed  shall  thrive, 
From  all  misfortune  free. 

7  Vain  and  deceitful  is  their  speech, 

With  curses  fill'd,  and  lies  ; 
By  which  the  mischief  of  their  heart 
They  study  to  disguise. 

8  Near  public  roads  they  lie  conceal'd 

And  all  their  art  employ, 
The  innocent  and  poor  at  once 
To  rifle  and  destroy. 

6  Not  lions,  crouching  in  their  dens, 

Surprise  their  heedless  prey 

With  greater  cunning,  or  express 

More  savage  rage  than  they. 

10  Sometimes  they  act  the  harmless  man, 
And  modest  looks  they  wear ; 
That  so,  deceiv'd  the  poor  may  less 
Their  sudden  onset  feaif. 


88  A.N    APPEAL,    ETC. 

PART  II. 

11.  For,  God,  they  think,  no  notiee  takes, 

Of  their  unrighteous  deeds ; 
He  never  minds  the  suff  'ring  poor, 
Nor  their  oppression  heeds. 

12.  But  thou,  O  Lord,  at  length  arise, 

Stretch  forth  thy  mighty  arm, 
And,  by  the  greatness  of  thy  pow'r, 
Defend  the  poor  from  harm. 

13  No  longer  let  the  wicked  vaunt, 
And,  proudly  boasting,  say, 
"  Tush,  God  regards  not  what  we  do ; 

"  He  never  will  repay." — Common  Prayer  Book. 


- 


m 


1  Shall  I  for  fear  of  feeble  man, 
The  spirit's  course  in  me  restrain  ? 
Or,  undismay'd  in  deed  and  word, 
Be  a  true  witness  of  my  Lord. 

2  Aw'd  by  mortal's  frown,  shall  I 
Conceal  the  word  of  God  Mbst  High  ! 
How  then  before  thee  shall  I  dare 
To  stand,  or  how  thy  anger  bear? 

3  Shall  I,  to  soothe  th'  unholy  throng, 
Soften  the  truth,  or  smooth  my  tongue, 
To  gain  earth's  gilded  toys  or,  flee 
The  cross  endur'd,  my  Lord,  by  thee? 

4  What  then  is  he  whose  scorn  I  dread  ? 
Whose  wrath  or  hate  makes  me  afraid 
A  man  !  an  heir  of  death  !  a  slave 
To  sin  !  a  bubble  on  the  wave  ! 

5  Yea,  let  men  rage,  since  thou  will  spread 
Thy  shadowing  wings  around  my  head : 
Since  in  all  pain  thy  tender  love 

Will  still  my  sure  refreshment  prove. 

Wesleys  Collection. 


$5*  It  may  not  be  Understood,  when  I  say  my  Third  and  last  Edition,  I  mean 
to  convey  the  idea,  that  there  will  be  no  more  Books  of  this  Third  Edttion 
printed,  but  to  notify  that  there  will  be  no  more  addition  in  the  body  of  this 
Work,  or  additional  Notes  to  this  "  Appeal."^} 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


VCC326.1; 
W17a 


